Safe and Sound
by IntoTheDeep27
Summary: From Heaven above and Hell below, she is the Handmaiden of Death, killing without mercy. Death is her only companion in life, and as she dreams of him, she drowns in tidal waves of blood. Who is she? She is Namikaze Makoto; this is her story. [Semi-AU, OC-Insert]
1. Chapter 1

_Summary:_ From Heaven above and Hell below, she is the Handmaiden of Death, killing without mercy. Death is her only companion in her life; and as she dreams of him, she drowns in tidal waves of blood. Who is she? She is Namikaze Makoto; this is her story.

* * *

 **"I remember tears streaming down your face  
When I said, "I'll never let you go,"  
When all those shadows almost killed your light.  
I remember you said, don't leave me here alone,  
But all that's dead and gone and passed tonight."**

 _Safe and Sound,_ Sam Tsui

* * *

 _Disclaimer:_ I don't own Naruto, only my OC's.

* * *

 **Safe and Sound** _ **  
**_ _ **01** : The Beginning of the End_

 _Namikaze Makoto._

 _You wanna know how a "traitor" looks like? Go look up that name_ _―b_ _ut that's only if you haven't heard of it already._

 _And you know what? I won't make some petty ass excuse to justify what I did. I did what I had to in order to save my loved ones._

 _There were many paths with alternative endings I could've chosen but I didn't. The road I chose wasn't a pretty one and I was willing to face the consequences of my decision. No matter what anyone says, I was the one who chose to walk down that dark path of hardships._

 _And because of my decision, in history books taught to all shinobi to be's in Konoha, you'll now find my name under the list of traitors to have ever existed in the village._

 _Although it only gave the basic information of my life―careful to never fully reveal it―to most of the older generation, they knew. No matter how much Konoha tries to hide it because of their embarrassment, they remember who I am_ ― _or at least, a version of who I used to be. They remember the blonde girl that tailed after her brother, the young girl that fought hard to save her only family. They remember the girl who had an optimistic way of viewing life, despite living in a war torn environment._

 _They remember me as Namikaze Minato's younger sister._

 _People call me many things now. They call me a traitor, an enemy, a disgrace. Yet, I hear the quiet whispers that originate from those dark bars and alleyways, I hear the other names that I'm called. Those whispers say that I'm a hero, their so-called 'savior.' But honestly, you tell me. Reading this story, what will you say? Will you still call me a hero at the end?_

 _Or will you call me something else?_

* * *

 **The Beginning of the End** _ **  
**_

* * *

A blonde child sat alone on a swing while the various children all around were running past her and towards their parents, ready to go home. The girl watched them mournfully, knowing that there would be no one to come pick her up.

She would have to go home alone.

"Papa!" She saw a child her age with silver hair run up to a man with the same colored hair. They walked away while holding hands, a smile on both of their faces. She didn't know what made her continue watching them knowing that it only caused her to feel even _lonelier_.

A few minutes went past and the number of children in the park dwindled until there was only her and another. "Where are your parents?" A quiet voice asked from behind her. She slowly turned around and looked at the boy.

Why was he wearing goggles?

…What a weird kid.

"I don't have any," she answered after a few seconds of watching him.

"Oh. Me too." A few awkward seconds passed between them before a smile suddenly erupted from the boy's face. "I'm Uchiha Obito! I'm going to be the Hokage!" he declared, pointing to himself.

"Hokage?" She jumped off of the swing and shook her head. "No no no, _you_ can't be Hokage. Nii-chan's going to be the next Hokage!" She crossed her arms. "And besides, you need to be a shinobi first."

This boy really wasn't really bright, was he?

Obito suddenly turned red and pointed to her. "I'll be the next Hokage, you just see!" he shouted out before running away, leaving the blonde on her own again. She was now the only one in the park and when she looked up, the sky was slowly starting to turn darker. She only sighed before jumping back onto the swing.

 _Too bad he didn't stay_ , she thought to herself. He probably left because he was mad at her for saying that he couldn't be the Hokage but she wasn't lying though…

She sighed.

Namikaze Makoto was a four-year-old girl, orphaned from birth. Well, not really _orphaned_. She _did_ have an older brother, ten years her senior, whom she loved wholeheartedly. He took great care of her and showered her with love, despite only being a child himself. He never blamed her for the death of their mother despite being the reason for it and it made her respect him even more.

But in the end, he was a shinobi, he wouldn't be here all day and every day to care for her. His job meant long missions, which left her alone with a stranger she didn't care for. It was times like this she would start to feel lonely―she was a four-year-old, after all.

"Makoto?"

Startled out of her thoughts, the little girl whirled around at the familiar voice. When she saw who had called out to her, a smile erupted on her face. Without a second thought, she jumped off the swing and ran as fast as she could with her short and stubby legs towards the teenager. She threw her arms around his legs and looked up, her blue eyes wide with surprise and happiness. "Nii-chan!" she shouted out, inciting an affectionate laugh from the older boy. "Why are you here? What about your mission? Why are you so dirty? Where's Ero-sensei? Wait, are you hurt?"

The fourteen-year-old couldn't help but laugh again and placed a hand on top of her head, ruffling her hair. She pouted but they both knew deep down she didn't really care. "I'm fine Mako. Our mission just finished early."

"Really?" He nodded his head. "Yay!" Makoto hugged her brother even harder. "Can we get dinner?" Coincidentally, her stomach rumbled at the same time. "Can we get tonkatsu?" Although it wasn't her favorite, she did love it enough to where she frequented the izakaya that sold the meal more than what her brother liked.

"Um..." She didn't notice but her brother was tired after an entire day of running. Yet, he couldn't say no to his little sister with the eyes she was looking at him with. Without saying anything, he suddenly hoisted her up to his shoulders. "Sure, why not?" he answered as he walked them out of the park.

"Yay!" She looked down at her brother, a new question on her mind. "Why'd you pick me up?"

"Well…why not?"

* * *

 **The Beginning of the End**

* * *

"Hey kid, where's that brother of yours?" Makoto whirled her head to the side and blinked when she saw the person who called out to her. She thought maybe it was one of her Nii-chan's teammates but…it was just Ero-sensei.

 _Boring_.

"Nii-chan?" she asked, looking back down at her apple juice.

"Yup."

She pointed to the bathrooms behind her. "Minato's in there, Ero-sensei."

There was a groan that was quickly followed by, "I thought I told you to stop calling me that."

"Why?" she asked, still looking at her nearly empty cup.

She really _really_ loved apple juice. Maybe she should get Ero-sensei to buy another one for her since this one was almost gone…but then Nii-chan would only get mad because it was already seven…

 _Choices, choices._

"Because it ain't true."

Straw still in her mouth, she tilted her head at him. "You shouldn't lie." She saw his eye twitch. "Me and Nii-chan saw you spying on women when we walked by the hot springs," she declared in a bluntness that all children seemed to have. Her voice rang loud enough for the young women next to her to sneer at the man. "And you always stare―"

He quickly covered her mouth with his hand, interrupting whatever she had planned on saying. " _Kid_ ," He called out in a taut voice, glaring at her, "You're testing my patience here," she giggled and started swinging her legs on the stool she was sitting on.

"Mhmph."

"I ain't moving my hand." Makoto tried to pull his hand off with as much strength her four-year-old body would let her but he kept it firmly over her mouth, never moving it. She returned his glare and decided to the one thing he probably wasn't expecting.

She licked his palm.

She looked at him, fully expecting him to recoil in disgust, but to her disappointment, he only sneered. "You're a gross one, you know that?" was the only thing he said.

Now it was her eyes' turn to twitch. "Mhpmh huir!" she tried to scream out but his hand muffled whatever she had said.

"I _can't_ _hear you!_ " He was teasing her at this point and it made her _very_ mad. So she decided to do the next best thing her mind could come up with.

She bit him.

 _This_ was something that Ero-sensei wasn't expecting and he pulled his hand away. "Ow ow ow." He blew on his hand, slightly impressed by how hard she managed to bite him. "What the hell was that for, brat?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "You're not supposed to swear. Nii-chan says it's bad for you."

"Speaking about your brother…" The older man turned back to the bathrooms. "Minato's taking a really long time. I'll be right back." She heard him mumble at the end, "He better not be taking a crap either."

Acting like she didn't hear that bad word, she waved at Ero-sensei. "Okay!" she called out to his retreating back as he rushed to the rooms behind them.

Makoto continued to swing her legs as she started humming a song she had heard on the television yesterday. She went to take a sip of her apple juice but sadly, there was now none left. "…Oh," she declared in a small, dejected voice as she eyed the bottom of the cup. She dug her hand into her pockets and tried finding some spare change but when she pulled out her hand, all she had was a candy wrapper and five yen laying on her palm. She needed _at least_ 300 yen more to buy another apple juice.

 _I knew I should have gotten Ero-sensei to buy me one_ , she thought dejectedly. Now, what was she supposed to do?

"Do you want another?" She turned to the young woman next to her and saw her pointing to her empty cup. "We'll buy you another if you want." She motioned to her friend next to her.

Makoto's eyes lit up at the thought of another drink. _Yes, victory!_ "Yes please―"

"Hey, we need to go." Turning around at the voice who _dared_ to interrupt them, what she saw nearly caused her to scream, but the look Ero-sensei was giving her made her decide _not_ to. He was carrying Minato on his back, her brother passed out and pale, perspiration lining his face. Minato was grimacing from something, worrying the little girl even more.

"W-What's wrong with Nii-chan?" her voice came out shaky and scared, the apple juice completely forgotten. She had never seen him like this before.

"I think it might be chakra exhaustion but I might be wrong." He adjusted Minato on his back before motioning with his head. "We gotta go."

"O-Okay." She quickly apologized to the women next to her and followed after her brother's teacher.

After walking in silence for a while, Makoto broke it with a quiet question. "J-Jiraiya-san, is this m-my fault?" she asked, tugging on the hem of his shirt.

The Sannin could tell how worried she was simply because she used his name instead of calling him that _crude_ and _misleading_ nickname that he couldn't get her to stop saying. "What are you talking about? Of course not."

She continued to hold onto his shirt as they walked but she turned her head down, avoiding his eyes. "…I was the o-one who asked if we could go eat dinner." He heard a sniffle.

Oh crap, she was about to _cry_.

At that exact moment, Jiraiya started to panic. "So that means it's my fault…right?" He stopped walking and starting going through a mental checklist what to when a kid started to cry.

Make them laugh?

…Yeah, that ain't happening at the moment. The unconscious blonde on his back _kinda_ ruined the mood.

Maybe he should comfort her, that has to help, right?

But…he didn't know how to comfort a kid.

 _Shit_.

"K-Kid, it's not your fault." Managing to keep Minato balanced on his back with one hand, he placed another on her head. "It's his fault for not taking care of his body, especially when you're around. He should've known better."

"B-But―"

Jiraiya gave her a rare, warm smile, a smile that she seemed to understand was a genuine one. "It wasn't your fault Makoto-chan, okay?" Her blue eyes shined with unshed tears but she nodded her head.

"A-Alright."

"Okay then, let's go." He hefted up Minato once again, groaning at the weight. "God, what the hell has he been eating?"

"That's a bad word Ero-sensei."

"You're calling me that _again?_ "

"Because you _are_ one."

He only groaned in response.

After rushing to the hospital, they diagnosed Minato with being poisoned and slightly chakra exhasuted, nothing a night in the hospital wouldn't fix. They placed him into a room, telling his sensei that he needed to stay here for at least the night. They would check tomorrow morning to see how he was doing and would decide to go from there.

"Uh…what am I supposed to do with you now?" Jiraiya looked down at the miniature Minato tugging at his shirt. The tiny blonde was slouching in her seat, half asleep.

"I dunno." Makoto slowly blinked, her voice heavy with sleep.

He frowned. "I can't just leave you here." Turning his head to the unconscious lump on the hospital bed, he could only murmur a quiet curse.

That idiot should've gone to the hospital to get that cut he had on his back checked out the _moment_ they stepped foot in Konoha like he _told_ him too but _no_ , Minato went straight to find his sister. Jiraiya didn't blame the kid, he understood that his student was worried for his only family, but _still_. It was pure luck that the poison Minato was infected with was one that was pretty much harmless.

For a confirmed genius, the blonde could be pretty stupid.

"Ero-sensei?" He turned around and saw Makoto yawning and rubbing her eyes. "I'm tired."

Jiraiya looked around the room and pulled over the other chair in the corner, sitting down next to her. "Your brother isn't going anywhere tonight and I have an obligation to watch over you since you're his sister. You're also too young to be left on your own," he explained, "You're going to be sleeping here for tonight."

She just gave him a blank look before slowly blinking once. "Okay." She yawned and smiled at him. "Goodnight." The girl closed her eyes, adjusted her position in her seat, and fell asleep in a matter of seconds.

Jiraiya watched with a mix of disbelief and amusement. Did she really just fall asleep like that, especially that quickly? He was pretty sure that more than half of the things he just said probably just went in through one ear and out the other too. "You asleep already?" He quietly asked, poking the girl in her leg. Her only response was a quiet snore.

…Well, _that_ was easier than expected.

After getting comfortable himself, he decided that the only thing he could do now was sleep.

So sleep he did.

* * *

 **The Beginning of the End**

* * *

"Thank you for taking care of my sister." It was the following morning and Minato was currently carrying a sleeping Makoto. He slightly bowed, waking the poor girl up. "I apologize for not listening to you yesterday and coming to the hospital first."

Jiraiya crossed his arms over his chest and nodded his head. "You're damn right."

"That's a bad word Ero-sensei," Makoto mumbled quietly, interrupting the two. "You shouldn't say bad words."

" _Kid_ ―" She stuck her tongue out at Jiraiya and hid her face into Minato's neck― "Your sister is _mean!_ She kept calling me that last night at the restaurant so the women around us were giving me the stink eye!" he exclaimed, obviously offended.

He did what he did for _research_ , why wouldn't anyone understand?

"Sensei…" Minato could only shake his head Jiraiya antics. "Well, I need to go back home. Do you still want to come over to talk about my new jutsu?" he asked, not even fazed by his eccentric teacher anymore.

Jiraiya shook his hand back and forth. "Nah, rest. We can talk about that next week. Just rest up until then." He stretched his arms above his head. "Oi, kid."

"Yeah?" Makoto looked at him.

"Make sure you watch out for your brother, okay?" He did a weird kabuki pose, inciting a laugh from the Namikaze siblings. "Well, gotta go! There's research to be done!"

He then disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"Tch." She shook her head and crossed her arms. "He was cool there for a second but he destroyed whatever cool he had."

"Maa maa, it's Sensei. What more do you expect?" Minato asked looking at her, walking them out of the room.

"…That's true."

* * *

 **The Beginning of the End - End**

* * *

 _ **A/N**_ _: This is so unoriginal but hey, I wanted to write a story about Minato having a little sister. Shoot me. But I guess one idea that I haven't really seen is a completely a character who doesn't know the storyline. She's completely original._

 _I've had this stuck in my mind for the past month and decided to finally write out a story for it! I just posted another one (a Sarutobi Asuma twin fic) but I'll probably be updating the both of them around the same time._

 _This KakashixOc story will be a slowburner, so don't expect some romance to happen for a while._

 _Also, I don't know but I think I'll be changing the rating to M after some of the more serious parts of the chapter start to be uploading because this story will be HELLA angst (or, at least I plan on making it angst)._

 _Well,_ _ **review**_ _guys! Please! That's what motivates me to write even more!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Summary:_ From Heaven above and Hell below, she is the Handmaiden of Death, killing without mercy. Death is her only companion in her life; and as she dreams of him, she drowns in tidal waves of blood. Who is she? She is Namikaze Makoto; this is her story.

* * *

 **"I believe that tomorrow is stronger than yesterday,  
And I believe that your head is the only thing in your way.  
I wish that you could see your scars turn into beauty,  
I believe that today it's okay to be not okay."**

 _I Believe_ _,_ Christina Perri

* * *

 _Disclaimer:_ I don't own Naruto, only any original characters.

* * *

 **Safe and Sound** _ **  
**_ _02: Happiness is a Given_

Makoto stood behind Jiraiya's legs, hoping that in some way, it would protect her from a certain redhead's wrath if it were somehow directed towards her. She still blamed herself for Minato's stint in the hospital a month ago.

If there was a word to describe her brother's girlfriend, it would be _odd_. Makoto liked the Uzumaki, she was super nice and always played with her―not to mention she made really good nikujaga―but at times she was terrified of Kushina.

Well…the embodiment of the ramen-loving teen was more overwhelming than terrifying once she thought about it. She was overwhelming in a sense that Makoto _agreed_ with Jiraiya-ojisan―a name she had begun calling him after Minato's hospital stay―when he said that Kushina's personality was basically that of a mother bear―overprotective and scary, yet affectionate and caring.

A good example of why would be now.

Kushina was currently chewing out Minato for not telling her about last month and little bits of their conversations could be heard from across the training field, although Jiraiya and Makoto chose to ignore the one-sided argument.

"Jiraiya-ojisan?" She looked up at her brother's teacher.

"What?"

"Will Nii-chan be okay?"

"Eh." Jiraiya turned around and frowned. "Why are you here anyways? It's dangerous―I thought I told Minato not to bring you."

"I followed him." She yawned and sat down, crossing her legs. "He told me to go back but I have nothing to do."

He narrowed his eyes. "…You gave your brother those puppy dog eyes, didn't you?"

Makoto's response was only to smile.

For a five-year-old girl, she was _quite_ sly and knew that she had her brother wrapped around her tiny little finger. Jiraiya could tell right now that this girl in front of him would be a _terrifying_ woman when she got older, almost like a certain blonde-haired Senju he knew.

He shook his head, sighing. "Fine. Just…stay back once we start," he advised. Pulling out a notebook, he sat down in front of her and started to write in it.

"What are you doing?" Makoto asked, eyeing the paper. She crawled over to the white-haired man and watched him write a bunch of kanji she couldn't read down. "Is that the thing you're helping Nii-chan with?"

"Yup." He pointed to a kanji with the end of his brush. "Your brother's trying to add the Hiraishin-jutsu to his own fighting style, which means we need to change some parts of the original jutsu."

"Oh…" Recognition lit up in her eyes at the jutsu name. "The Hiraishin was the jutsu that the Nidaime created to go really _really_ fast from one place to another, right?" From the corner of his eye, she saw her facial expression change from boredom to excitement. "Nii-chan's trying to use that jutsu? That's so _cool_ ―but I thought no one could use it?"

"You're right. Do you know why?"

"Why?" She cocked her head to the side and puckered her lips in thought. "Was it because he didn't want anyone else to use it?"

"You're slightly right but that's not the complete answer." He motioned for her to come closer, which she did. "Fūinjutsu is…unusual. For example, Kushina," He pointed to the redhead who was still scolding Minato. "She grew up in a clan that was famous for their sealing, so she learned how to do it there."

"That's so _cool_ ," Makoto breathed out, her blue eyes wide with wonder.

He chuckled. "It is," he agreed before continuing. "And if you look at her sealing now, you can clearly see that her Fūinjutsu style originates from the Uzumaki Clan. But for someone like me, a _master_ at Fūinjutsu―" He saw the eye roll that came from the girl but he chose to ignore it― "I can see the distinctions between her Fūinjutsu and the one that the Uzumaki taught. Can you guess why?"

His question was a very generic question, one where most answered in a few seconds. Albeit, the ones he asked tended to be four times her age―and even then, there were some who couldn't answer the question. Perhaps she was too young―

"Um…" She tilted her head and blinked, her eyes unfocused. "Her Fūinjutsu changed over time and has her own style," she said, her answers coming out as questions. "She created her own Fūinjutsu techniques and her personality bled through?"

But then again, Makoto _was_ Minato's younger sister.

"Huh, you got it right," Jiraiya mumbled before nodding his head. "How'd you realize that?"

"…I dunno." She shrugged her shoulders. "It just came to me since Nee-san's very loud and energetic, and you said that was her personality when I asked once. Fūinjutsu seems like a lot of work and things with a lot of work scream _personality_ to me," she tried explaining all of this while throwing her hands everywhere.

He blinked at her before shouting out a very loud _what the hell_? "That makes _zero_ sense kid―there's absolutely no connection to Fūinjutsu and your answer at all!"

"Oh," Makoto giggled before standing up. "Okay then!" Her voice came out childish, very different from seconds earlier.

What a _strange_ kid. He didn't know what was wrong with the brat―erm, he didn't _really_ mean that―but way her face just…transformed from a serious expression to a childish, immature one, it was a face he was only used to seeing from Minato.

Giving up, Jiraiya just stood up and started walking towards his student. "Let's go save your brother."

* * *

 **Happiness is a Given**

* * *

 _One Year Later..._

"Wake up Makoto."

The little blonde slowly blinked her eyes, waking up at the arm that nudged her. "…Huh?"

"Did you sleep through the Sandaime's opening speech?" her brother asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"No?" she answered confidently with a yawn.

Minato sighed, "When I joined the Academy, I was at the edge of my seat, excited to listen to what the Hokage had to say. I listened to _every_ single word―"

"Makoto, don't worry-ttebane," Kushina suddenly interrupted from her right. "Your brother's weird, that's why he was listening. Most kids fell asleep―even I did!"

Well, that was good to know. Although, she _did_ manage to stay awake for a few minutes during the Hokage's speech; it was just _so_ boring. It was just as bad as hearing Nii-chan go on and on and on about the whatevers of ninjutsu.

Smiling at her, Makoto turned back around to her brother. "See Nii-chan, you're weird. Even Jiraiya-ojisan says you're weird and that's saying something."

"I-I…" Minato gave up. "Come on, they're going to announce your teacher."

"Alrighty," she said as she jumped off of her seat. As she followed her brother, she noticed that almost everyone around her were parents―mothers were fussing over their children while fathers were standing proudly.

But she had her Nii-chan and although he wasn't them, he was the closest thing she had to a parent.

"Do you have everything? Your obento?" her brother suddenly whirled around and asked. The intensity of his question took Makoto by surprise―although, to be honest, she really _shouldn't_ have been surprised, it was her brother after all―and she took a step back into Kushina's legs. "Do you have your water bottle?"

"Yup."

"Your books?"

"Yup."

"Do you have extra pencils?"

" _Yes_ , Nii-chan, I do."

"Do you have―"

"Good God Minato, leave the poor girl alone-ttebane!" Kushina placed her hands on Makoto's shoulders while looking at her boyfriend. "She has everything, remember? You checked _before_ we came here."

"I'm just worried―" he tried reasoning but was quickly shot down by his own, cute, little sister.

"You're _always_ worried, Nii-chan," she said with a monotonous tone that did not belong on a five-year-old's voice.

"Heh, that was a good one-ttebane Makoto," Kushina praised the little blonde. "Anyways, the teachers are beginning to call the students. Come on!"

After teachers were introduced and goodbyes were said―in which _her_ goodbye happened to be a crying Namikaze and an Uzumaki telling her that they would have ramen for a celebratory dinner―Makoto found herself in a classroom full of children she didn't know. Already, she could see cliques being formed―many of the orphanage kids stuck together, the civilians were talking quietly amongst each other, and several clan kids were snickering at pretty much everybody who wasn't them.

For a child in a room full of tiny people, she sure felt small.

"Hey, you're blocking the door!" Whirling around, she quickly bowed and apologized to whoever it was.

"S-Sorry."

"It's fine," he said. When she stood back up to greet the boy, he let out a loud, " _Ah!"_ before pointing to her. "You're that girl from the park!" he shouted out, his orange goggles somehow flying off of his head.

"I am?" She tilted her head and tried to remember if she had ever met this boy...wait, he's right! "I am! And you're that boy that said he was going to be Hokage!"

"It's because I _am_ going to Hokage!" Obito announced, pointing a finger to himself.

She just smiled at him as she picked up his fallen goggles.

"Pfft, sure you are. You need to graduate from the Academy first," a voice suddenly interrupted from behind Obito, ruining the somewhat lighthearted mood. "And knowing you, you probably won't be able to."

The voice belonged to a child that seemed to be the embodiment of the stereotypical Uchiha: cold, dark, broody―it was someone that Makoto could tell she would not get along with.

"That's not very nice, you know?" she said, defending Obito. "It's not a bad thing to have a dream."

"He should dream to be something realistic," The Uchiha crossed his arms over his chest and snickered at his cousin. "Perhaps a waiter? Wait, even _that_ might be aiming too high."

Makoto stormed up to the boy. "Fine, if you want to be like that, then what do _you_ want to be when you're older?" Makoto demanded but before the unnamed Uchiha could say anything, she smirked and placed her hands on her hips, a dangerous sparkle in her eyes. "Wait, I bet I know what you want to be. You probably wanna become a Jōnin, right? Or maybe you wanna join the Police Force in your Clan and get high up in the ranks?"

"Y-You―" His face slowly started to change as it began growing redder and redder with both anger and embarrassment.

"You just want to be that typical Uchiha that has a stick up their butt, right?" She snickered before continuing her assault on her fellow classmate. "Well I got good news for you buddy―you're already halfway there to being a big, fat, _nobody_ that everyone forgets by the time they're 20."

Doing something she's only seen Kushina-neechan do a couple times, Makoto flipped her relatively short hair over her shoulder and turned her back to the boy as she began walking toward an empty desk in the now silent classroom. It was when she sat down that she noticed the angry stares of the young girls in the room.

...Huh, why were they all glaring at her? She only said the things that were obviously true!

There was a scuffling of a chair next to her and suddenly, Obito's face was the only thing she saw as he practically invaded her personal space. "They're all mad at you because he's supposed to be the next prodigy of my clan. They're all his fangirls," he said, answering her unspoken question.

"Fangirls?" she asked incredulously. "That's so... _stupid._ "

"Tell me about it."

She gave him a large smile―or a Namikaze smile, as Kushina-neesan always said―and stuck her hand out to him. "Well, I'm Namikaze Makoto, nice to meet you!"

Obits smiled shyly before introducing himself. "I'm Uchiha Obito. Um...thanks for defending me from my cousin earlier." He was turning redder by the second. "N-Not that I needed i-it!"

She shook her hand and scoffed. "I hate bullies; I wasn't gonna stand there as he teased you."

Before either of them could continue their conversation, their teacher stormed into the classroom and shouted out, "Find your seats! We're starting!"

* * *

 **Happiness is a Given - End**

* * *

 **A/N:** _Well here's the second chapter :) Hope you enjoy! Sorry for the very very very very late upload, I don't really have an excuse for this…_

 _Sorry._


	3. Chapter 3

_Summary:_ From Heaven above and Hell below, she is the Handmaiden of Death, killing without mercy. Death is her only companion in her life; and as she dreams of him, she drowns in tidal waves of blood. Who is she? She is Namikaze Makoto; this is her story.

* * *

 **"But she said, where d'you wanna go?  
How much you wanna risk?  
I'm not looking for somebody with some superhuman gifts.  
Some superhero, some fairytale bliss,  
Just something I can turn to, somebody I can kiss."**

 _Something Just Like This,_ Madilyn Bailey

* * *

 _Disclaimer:_ I don't own Naruto, only any original characters/plots.

* * *

 **Safe and Sound** _ **  
**_ _03: Fights_

Makoto slammed the house door open and stormed into her house, her breaths coming out in short, hard puffs while her hands were balled into fists. Her eyes roamed the room and when she noticed there was no one home, tears began pooling in her eyes. She slowly looked at her torn knees and watched as blood began streaming down her legs.

"...Damn," she muttered. Makoto, now feeling the aftereffects of the adrenaline rush from her earlier fight, winced at the pain she was beginning to finally feel. She sighed and hoped her brother wouldn't be home anytime soon. Shrugging off her backpack, she began tugging at the braids that her brother had tried doing this morning. Already, she could yell that her spiky hair was a tangled mess, despite having them tied. She was about to walk toward the bathroom with the intent of washing away all evidence of the fight she had gotten into when there was suddenly a familiar whooshing sound from behind her.

"I'm home―" Makoto stood still, her body now racked with panic as the one person she did not want home stood behind her. "What the hell happened?"

Whirling around, she forced a smile onto her face and held up her hands. "Hi Nii-chan! How was...whatever you did today? I'm good, um...this is all just, uh, falling from a tree! I-I'm going to go take a bath now―" she shouted out mid-turn, but Minato suddenly grabbed the back of her shirt before she could successfully run off.

"You're a horrible liar Makoto," he said with a slightly amused tone.

"N-No I'm not," she countered.

Her brother only scoffed before pointing to her face. "You have a black eye and nail marks on your neck―you still going to continue with your story of falling out of a tree?"

"I-I…"

Minato finally let go of his sister and sighed, running a hand through his hair. He did not expect his sister to get into a fight six months into the Academy, that's for sure. "Just tell me what happened."

"Um...well...a group of third-year students were picking on Obito s-so I...uh…" her sentence quietly drifted off as she began fidgeting on the spot, not able to meet her brother's eyes.

"You what, Makoto?"

"I told them to stop but they wouldn't so...I punched them. Well, I punched the leader since he was the one that was hitting Obito but it wasn't my fault! Obito is always picked on and he's my only friend right now and you're always saying that I should protect my friends―"

"Um…"

"A-And I couldn't just _stand_ there I mean they were hurting him _really_ bad―"

There was suddenly a bang, indicating someone at the front door. At first, Makoto didn't know who it was, but judging by the usual sigh that came out of her brother, she could guess who it was.

"Makoto-chan, Minato-kun, I brought dinner-tebbane!"

Kushina came running into the living room, carrying two bags of groceries, and from the corner of her eye, Makoto saw her brother rubbing his face stressfully.

...Oops.

"Uh...did I come at a bad time?" Kushina asked, sensing the tense air in the room.

"No!"

"Yes, Kushina, you did." Makoto shot her brother a glare but he narrowed his eyes at her.

The redhead placed the bags onto the floor and scanned the little girl. "You're hurt," she said. Makoto shut her eyes when she saw Kushina rush towards her. Was she going to yell at her? Scream at her? Tell her how bad she was?

"I'm sorry―"

"I'm so proud of you-ttebane!"

Makoto slowly opened her eyes and she took in her brother's dumbfounded expression―which was definitely matching with her own. There was an awkward silence between the three of them, only to be broken once more by Kushina's squeal. "I mean, I was getting into fights _way_ younger than you were but still, I'm so proud of you!"

"Y-You're not mad?"

She shrugged her shoulders and asked, "Why would I be mad? I mean, knowing you-ttebane, you probably beat a kid up for hurting someone."

"K-Kushina, that's not really the _point_ ," Minato tried arguing but he was quickly shut up by a hand.

"Well, was it because of that?" The young Namikaze nodded her head, not meeting the two young adults' eyes. "Tell me what happened."

So Makoto did. She told Kushina the entire story and by the end of it, she was tired and still slightly scared.

Her brother's girlfriend stood up, looked at her and her brother, and shrugged her shoulders once more. "Yup. I think you shouldn't get mad her for this-ttebane, Minato. I don't think it's really fair."

"Still…"

"You beat someone up for me once, remember?" Kushina whirled around and pointed at Minato. "That's not different from what she did."

Makoto looked up hopefully. Was she really not going to get in trouble? Was she really going to be okay?

Her brother looked at her for a few more seconds before sighing, seemingly making up his mind. "...Fine, you're not in trouble."

"Yes!" She shot her fist up in the air.

" _But,_ " he demanded, "don't make this a usual occurrence, got it?"

"Yes, Nii-chan!"

The following day found Makoto back at school, bored, and still glad that she wasn't in trouble.

"I _hate_ him," Obito growled out while staring at a certain classmate's head. He tried to sound intimidating but the black eye he was sporting really didn't help―at all.

She groaned before shoving her best friend. "That's not nice Obito. It's not his fault that um...he's good at school."

"So? He shouldn't have to rub it in my face all the time!"

"...What? He never does that―"

Obito grabbed her shoulders and began shaking her. "Yes, he does! He does all the time! He gets 100's on tests and always beats me up during spars!"

She allowed herself to be shook while she tried reasoning with the Uchiha. "He probably practices and studies at home, something _you_ don't _do!_ " she managed to say through all the shaking.

Obito finally let go of her and grabbed his own chest, feigning shock. "W-What? How could you say that? You're supposed to be _my_ friend!"

Makoto, unfazed by his weird antics, waved a hand nonchalantly and laid her head down on the desk. "Because it's true," she said impassively.

Her friend only let out a small growl before returning to his usual position of glaring at his so-called _rival_ ―a one-sided rivalry that resulted in nothing good, if you asked her.

"Alright, lunch break's over! Get back to your seats!"

As her classmates all shuffled back to their seats, Makoto watched as most of the girls in the room began squealing and whispering amongst themselves as Hatake Kakashi simply turned a _page in a book_.

"Ugh...how stupid are girls?"

"...You're a girl, Makoto."

She glared at Obito before muttering a quiet, "I know." She sneered at the main girl of the so-called _Kakashi-kun Fanclub_. The leader of the group was Uchiha Nao, a stubborn and rude girl, who happened to be watching Hatake with a stupid look on her face at the moment. "It still doesn't mean I can't hate them," Makoto growled quietly.

"Alright, we'll be doing spars today. This time, I will be deciding your partners!" Their teacher announced.

A groan resonated throughout the classroom.

An hour later, Makoto found herself with the one person she did not want to be with. Ever.

She hated the Uchiha! All that girl cared about was whether or not her hair was long enough or if that freaking Hatake was going to look at her or not. It was so... _ridiculous_ that she was even starting to feeling _bad_ for Nao.

"Namikaze Makoto and Uchiha Nao, come on." The two glared at each other as they slowly walked into the designated circle. As they both got into the proper stance, she could hear Obito from behind her cheering her on. "Begin!"

They both stood still for a few seconds until Nao made the first move. The girl sprang forward, her fist raised in the air to punch Makoto. However, seeing this, she ducked down and swept her foot across the dirt, tripping the Uchiha. Nao fell to the ground on her back, only to roll to her side when Makoto brought her other foot down.

With a look of pure determination, Makoto began throwing punches strategically, trying hard to overwhelm the girl.

Huh...for a girl who was boy-crazy, she admitted to herself that Nao could hold her own in a fight.

Makoto watched as the Uchiha began to get tired, her blocks getting slower. It was when Nao looked at someone behind her that Makoto took this as an opportunity to roundhouse kick the girl in the face. She fell on her back and held her nose, crying out in what was probably both shock and pain.

"My _nose!_ "

Makoto stood about a meter back and shrugged her shoulders while saying, "Oops, sorry." She heard a snort from one of her classmates as she... _apologized,_ to Nao.

"Alright alright, let me see your nose." Their teacher walked over to them and removed the hand covering her nose. "You're fine. It'll just be a little bruised." Sensei pulled her up and then proceeded to push the two girls back into the circle. "Now do the Seal of Reconciliation."

Although the both of them clearly didn't want to, the look Sensei was giving them scared them into doing it anyways.

"Next pair, come on up!"

Makoto quickly ran over to where Obito stood, only to be bombarded with a series of _that was amazing_ and _did you see the look on her face_.

"Obito, I got it, calm down," Makoto tried saying but it seemed like her best friend was completely ignoring her. " _Obito―_ "

"I mean, she was _so_ stupid because she was looking at Hatake the _entire_ time!"

 _Of course she was,_ Makoto thought. That was probably why she was able to easily corner her. Ugh, this was why she hated girls and their stupid crushes.

Another half hour passed before Obito was called―and just her luck, he _had_ to be partnered up with Kakashi. She already knew what the outcome of this spar was going to be and she wasn't going to hear the damn _end_ of it.

"Yosh, just watch me! I'm going to finally beat his ass!"

Makoto yawned and waved her hand, tired from her earlier fight. "Okay. Good luck."

Her friend shot her a glare, clearly ticked from the unemotional tone of her voice.

"Hurry up Obito, you two are the last pair."

And just like she had predicted, Obito had his ass handed to him within a minute of the fight.

That was how her day ended.

* * *

 **Fights**

* * *

"Minato, you really need to stop this―"

"I don't know what you're talking about Kushina."

"You damn know well what I'm talking about-ttebane! This fake smile you have going―"

Makoto's hand hovered over the door to her house. Should she...should she go in?

"I'm _fine_ , alright? I'm not faking anything―"

There was a slam, causing her to flinch and take a step back. " _Sure you're not!_ We both know that you have some sort of act going on and at first I let it go because it was towards our seniors but _now―_ " The voices were muffled for a few seconds before they continued, "―you're doing it to Jiraiya-ttebane, to _me_ , and to your damn _sister!_ "

And _this_ was her cue to get the hell out of here.

Makoto quietly, but as fast as she could, ran away towards the direction she came in. This was the third fight in the past two weeks that Nii-chan and Kushina had gotten into and the reason for the fight was always the same thing.

Something about Minato's smile, whatever _that_ meant.

Makoto walked by along the hill the stood next to the river, her already sad mood even sadder. She had failed a test during her Kunoichi class―but to be honest, this didn't really surprise her, she sucked at the class―and Obito was busy with his grandmother after school, which meant her friend couldn't be with her today.

She slid down the side of the hill and began heading towards the small dock. She sat down at the edge, her feet dangling high over the water below her. She pulled out a photo that she always kept with her and frowned as she recalled the events of the past two weeks.

"What's with the long face brat?"

Startled, she looked up and sighed when she saw who it was. "Hi, Jiraiya-ojisan."

Her brother's eccentric teacher sat down next to her and grabbed the photo in her hand. "What's this?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"I-It's um…" She looked away, embarrassed. "It's a photo of Nii-chan and Kushina-neesan."

She ended up sighing again but this time, she was becoming even _sadder_. Damn, she didn't like crying but she knew this feeling anywhere. Tears suddenly began filling her eyes and she hurriedly wiped them away.

"Kid…"

"I'm okay, I'm okay," she tried saying through her tears. Jiraiya placed the photo behind him and leaned forward to look at her.

She continued to wipe at her eyes, her emotions now getting the best of her. She hated this so much. She hated crying, she hated how her brother and Kushina were fighting, she hated how she had almost no friends, she hated _everything._

A hand suddenly patted her on the top of her head as Jiraiya consoled her, saying, "It's okay to not be okay. You don't gotta hold your feelings in Mako-chan." Hearing this, she pulled her hands away and looked up at the man who was practically her uncle. Tears were still streaming down her face but she didn't bother wiping them away. "So tell me, what's wrong?"

"...Kushina-neesan and Nii-chan are fighting again," she muttered.

"Again?"

She nodded her head before continuing. "Yeah...and I'm r-really worried that K-Kushina-neesan is going to leave this time." At the thought of the one person who was an older sister and mother figure all in one, Makoto began crying again. "A-And Nii-chan is always in a grumpy mood lately an-and Kushina is always saying something about a smile a-and I'm s-scared!"

Seeing Makoto like this hurt Jiraiya, as much as he didn't want to admit it. He may act like he didn't care about her but in truth, he truly did care. She was just as important to him as Minato was.

He put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a hug. "It'll be alright. Those two...are so different in character, but at the same time they're meant for each other."

"R-Really?"

He looked at her and chuckled. "Yup, so you're all good."

She nodded her head but made no move to get out of the hug. He allowed her to stay like this for a few more minutes but when he tried to pull away, he noticed that she had...fallen asleep.

"Huh, what do ya know, she's sleeping," he muttered to himself.

So he did what any good uncle would―because he was a _great_ uncle, thank you very much - and threw her into the river.

He stood up, his hands on the side of his hips as he waited for Makoto to get out. "Jiraiya-ojisan! What the hell?!" Makoto screeched out as she erupted through the water, coughing.

"Kid, you're not supposed to curse like that! You're too young!" He scolded.

He saw her eye tick at him and as she tried pulling herself out of the river, she growled out, "You're demoted back to Ero-sensei!"

"W-What?" With one leg on the dock and the other still dangling, Makoto looked _far_ from scary. She was struggling to still pull herself up, yet the look she was giving him…

She was spending too much time with that monster of an Uzumaki, he decided.

"You heard me! That's what you get for doing this!" The moment she _finally_ managed to pull herself up onto the dock, she launched herself at Jiraiya while screeching, "I hate you!"

"Don't touch me!" He managed to jump away from her soaked body and began running away, not wanting to get wet. "I'm sorry Mako-chan, please forgive me! Please don't call me that crude and mean name! Call me ojisan like the cute little girl you are―"

"You don't deserve to be called ojisan!" She began chasing him, her clothes dripping with cold water. "I will never call you ojisan again!

This was how Jiraiya managed to get his cute little niece to forget about her problems, even if it was temporary. He wasn't sure if it was worth losing his _Jiraiya-ojisan_ nickname, but for now, he'd suffer through that gross name she used to call him. He just had to make sure the girl wasn't around him while he did his... _research._

But...he'd have to talk to Minato about this. He had already warned the Namikaze that faking his way through relationships was never going to end well and he had thought Minato would listen, but clearly, _he didn't_.

 _Damn...this was going to be messy though,_ he thought to himself as Makoto screeched bloody murder from behind him.

* * *

 **Fights - End**

* * *

 **A/N:** _Thank you guys so much for the love I get for this story! Now that summer break has started for me, I'll probably find myself writing a lot more than before. This chapter was more of a filler than anything, but the ending will probably play a big role in the long run._

 _Other than that, leave behind a review and a favorite because they motivate me to write faster for you guys!_

 _Until next time!~_


	4. Chapter 4

_Summary:_ From Heaven above and Hell below, she is the Handmaiden of Death, killing without mercy. Death is her only companion in her life; and as she dreams of him, she drowns in tidal waves of blood. Who is she? She is Namikaze Makoto; this is her story.

* * *

 **"She held me spellbound in the night,  
Dancing shadows and firelight.  
Crazy laughter in another room,  
And she drove herself to madness with a silver spoon."**

 _Witchy Woman_ , The Eagles

* * *

 **Safe and Sound  
** _04: Death_

"You piss me off."

The sound of a slap rang throughout the room that was quickly accompanied by a loud, "Ow!"

"Language Makoto!"

The little girl grumbled at her brother before rubbing the sore spot on the back of her head. "It's not my fault he's an ass!"

She saw the hand raised a second too late and before she could protect herself, her brother had slammed his hand on the top of her head and kept it there.

What was he doing…?

Her eyes widened as her brother's grip began squeezing her head. "Ow ow ow _ow!_ " she began screaming.

Minato gave her one of his, _I may be smiling but I'm actually not_ , looks that _terrified_ her. "Where did you learn all these words? I think you're spending too much time with Sensei, ne Makoto?"

"N-No," she managed to say through the pain. "I learned that from K-Kushina-neesan!"

She saw her brother's eye tick before he let go of her. "Of course you got it from her," he grumbled. A sharp cough interrupted the siblings and they both turned back to the topic at hand. "Oh, sorry Kakashi-kun."

"It's alright Minato-sensei."

She narrowed her eyes at her former classmate, her arms crossed over her chest. She hadn't seen the boy since he was transferred out of her class to one with older students and to be honest, she was glad. He had been a pain simply because they were in the same class―now that he had left, Obito had finally shut up about Hatake and their stupid rivalry.

At first, she felt bad for Kakashi because of the amount of hate he got for being in their class, but after interacting with him for a few times, she realized something _very_ crucial.

He practically _asked_ for it.

Kakashi was rude, he was mean, and what Jiraiya liked to say, he had a stick up his butt - whatever _that_ meant _._

"Well, ignore Makoto and make yourself at home. You'll be here for a while."

"So Father didn't tell you when he'd be back?" Kakashi asked the older Namikaze.

"Sorry Kakashi," Minato answered. "Anyways, you'll be sharing the room with Makoto for the time being."

"Why does it have to be _my_ room?" she grumbled quietly under her breath, glaring at her brother. The siblings glared at each other, some sort of silent argument going on between them once more.

A few awkward―at least, for Kakashi it was awkward―seconds passed before Minato turned back to him and smiled before pushing the two kids down the hallway, clearly winning whatever...thing had just occurred between the two. "This way!"

"Uh Sensei―"

The older blonde ignored him as they were all pushed into the youngest Namikaze's room. "Well, here you go! I have another futon in the closet and there's plenty of room in Makoto's closet for your clothes―"

Once again Kakashi tried protesting but a poke on his arm stopped him. "There's no point in protesting. When he's in this weird mother-hen mood he doesn't wanna stop for a while," she whispered to him. "He's worse than Kushina-neesan sometimes," she also added a second later.

It looked like he was going to protest this past couple but Makoto shook her head to reinforce what she had said. "Seriously, don't."

"Anyways, once Kushina gets here, we'll all go out for dinner!" Minato sang out. Her brother once more dragged them but this time, to the living room to wait for his girlfriend.

"I'll be sure to not bother you any more than need be, Minato-sensei," Kakashi declared as they all sat down in the seats.

"What?" Minato turned to the little boy, shocked at both the tone and what he had just said. "You're a kid, Kakashi, you can be more...childish." Kakashi just shrugged in response and sat still in his seat, his posture perfect and his face devoid of any emotion. Minato only stared at him.

It was...unnerving to see him like this, especially when his little sister, who was the same age, was the complete opposite.

Sitting to the left of him was Makoto and she was everything Kakashi _was not_ ―not that it was a bad thing, it was just slightly entertaining to see how different two children the same age could be. She was sprawled out across the entire seat, her legs also taking up his personal space by nearly hitting him in his face. She had a look of complete boredom, despite being upside down and having her head hanging off the couch. She kept shifting her position, not able to sit still for more than a few minutes.

He could only sigh.

At least she wasn't completely dumb. She _did_ have some of the highest grades in most of the subjects in class, despite not being a clan kid.

He was proud, to say the least.

"Makoto, can't you sit a little...better?" he tried asking.

His sister glared at him from her position and the look on her face was pretty funny if you asked him. "No."

"Why?"

"Because."

He knew better than to argue with Makoto when she was in one of her moods. Sighing, Minato turned back to face Kakashi and saw that he too was looking at bus younger sister with a weird, slightly condescending look on his face.

They were the same age but still, the difference between them…

It was going to be a _long_ month.

Or so, Minato had thought, but three months later, Kakashi was still living in their place.

It frustrated Makoto to no ends, that was for sure.

"Kushina-neesan, when is Kakashi going to leave?" Makoto asked, her question echoing throughout the bathroom.

Kushina scratched the back of her neck and leaned back against the bath. "I have no idea Mako-chan. His father is on a crucial mission that requires him to leave for a while-ttebane." Not satisfied with this answer, she crouched into the water, leaving only her eyes above the water. "I know you don't like he's living with you guys but give poor Kakashi-kun a break, ne?" Her brother's girlfriend ruffled her wet hair and directed a smile towards her. "And besides, Sakumo-sensei will probably be back soon-ttebane."

A knock on the door interrupted them. "Kushina, someone's at the door for you."

"...Alright, thanks, Minato-kun," she shouted out. A sigh left her lips before she pulled Makoto up with her. "Too bad-ttebane, we had just gotten in."

Makoto shrugged her shoulders. "I have homework anyways."

It took about fifteen minutes to get the two girls out of the bathroom and Kushina's long hair still wasn't dry as they walked out. Makoto, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. Her hair, while somewhat dry, had _exploded_. It shot up in all directions, making her already spiky hair even spikier.

It was the same for Minato whenever he got out of the shower―their hair was _exactly_ the same. Only his was shorter, making it worse.

"Nii-chan!" She ran towards her brother, who happened to be sitting on the couch, with a brush in her hand as Kushina continued towards the door. She jumped onto the couch and sat between his legs, handing him the brush. He only quietly laughed before taking the brush―it was a usual thing a usual thing the siblings did as a way of bonding. "Can you help me with my homework later?" she asked a few seconds later, looking up.

There was this one problem she could _not_ solve and it _frustrated_ her.

"Sure." The sound of a shower running could be heard and Makoto was quick to realize that Kakashi had left his spot on the couch.

Kushina suddenly came rushing back into the room, a look of panic on her face, so Makoto kept her mouth shut. She knew enough to know that her time with Minato was over, judging by Kushina. After all, living in a shinobi household meant that they had to leave at any time without any notice.

"Kushina…?" her brother asked.

Her eyes looked quickly at the bathroom that held Kakashi before looking back at Minato. The room remained quiet but there was a silent conversation going between the two.

"...Crap, okay." Her brother maneuvered himself out of the couch and quickly placed his hands on Makoto's shoulders. "Hey, I'll be back, okay? Make sure you and Kakashi stay here and go to bed at the usual time if I'm not home by then." He stood up and walked away but not before quickly returning and placing a kiss on her forehead. "Sorry I couldn't help you with your homework."

"S'okay Nii-chan." She gave him a hug before waving her hand goodbye at Kushina. "Be safe."

The two only gave her a forced smile before rushing out of the house. Quickly, Makoto grabbed the brush her brother had placed on the couch and walked towards the bathroom.

"Kakashi!" she shouted, "I'm going to be using the sink and mirror!"

"Okay!"

She opened the door and paid no mind to the sliding door that separated this room with the shower room. Grabbing the stool her brother had gotten for her―because she was _so_ short and she couldn't wait until she was taller―she wiped her hand across the mirror to get rid of the condensation and began brushing through her hair. After finishing, she grabbed her toothbrush and began brushing her teeth.

A few minutes passed before the sounds of the shower stopped. "I'm coming out," Kakashi shouted out.

"'Kay!" Makoto closed her eyes and continued doing what she was doing.

The sound of a door sliding was heard and soon after, Kakashi had muttered, "You can open your eyes now." She looked at the boy before handing him his own toothbrush. "Where are Minato-sensei and Kushina-san?" he asked, stepping onto his own stool next to her.

Spitting out the toothpaste, she shrugged her shoulders. "I dunno but they left in a hurry. I'm pretty sure they're going to be back late."

He quickly followed suit and spat out the toothpaste before rinsing his mouth. "Okay."

She smiled at him before jumping off. She walked to the living room. Another thirty minutes passed before Makoto found herself slamming her head on the table out of pure frustration.

"I," she slammed her head down once more, "don't," another slam, " _understand!_ "

A sound of someone clearing their throat made her freeze. "Are you having trouble?"

She slowly looked up, her face red from embarrassment. She had completely forgotten about Kakashi. "I…" He raised an eyebrow before sitting in front of her. "...Yes, I do," she admitted.

"I'll help you if you want."

She narrowed her eyes at him, still apprehensive about the change in Kakashi. "What do you want?"

Kakashi looked at her and she couldn't see what he was thinking because of his masked face, which _also_ frustrated her. "Tell me why Kushina-san and Sensei left."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Sure, I guess?" That was such a weird request. IF it was her, she would've asked for something...better. "But you have to help me first."

"Deal."

So for fifteen minutes, Kakashi helped her through the insufferable math problem that she had been stuck on _all_ day―even at school, she was pulling her hair out because of this problem.

The moment they finished, she told him what had occurred while he was in the shower. "So she ran into the room and looked at the shower room? I thought that was weird."

"Then what?"

"Well...she looked at Nii-chan and they had some sort of conversation but with their eyes―ya know, the one adults always do when we're around? So, they did that, and left right after."

Kakashi remained silent in thought for a few seconds before suddenly jumping off of the chair. "I'll be back."

"W-What?"

"You heard me."

She followed him, stopping at the front door where he was putting on his shoes. "Y-You can't leave! Nii-chan said that we had to stay."

"I'll be fine." With that, he quickly ran out the front door, leaving poor Makoto behind in confusion and worry.

 _Crap crap crap,_ she thought to herself. As much as she wanted to stay here and listen to what her brother said, she knew she couldn't leave Kakashi alone when it was this late. So she quickly followed suit and ran after the boy, scared for her life.

"Kakashi, slow down!"

The boy whirled around when she called out. "Makoto, what are you doing?"

Finally catching up to him, she breathed heavily as she glared at him. "Following _you,_ stupid. Nii-chan said that we had to stay home but since you're not _listening_ for once, I couldn't just leave you!"

He just stared at her with those unnerving eyes before scoffing, "You do realize that I'm only a couple months away from graduating...right?"

"So?" she countered. "You're still my age so I can't just leave you."

He decided against arguing with her since he knew that like Kushina, once she made up her mind, she didn't really budge. It was something he had learned these past couple of months. "Fine but we're running, so don't hold me back."

"Whatever," she said before asking, "Where are we going anyways?"

"If I'm correct, which I usually am," he was interrupted by a scoff, which he ignored and continued, "My father probably came home and is at the hospital."

"Oh...okay."

It didn't take them _too_ long since it seemed like Kakashi knew where the hospital was, so they made it in about ten minutes, give or take. She was about ready to drop dead the moment the hospital doors slid open but knowing Kakashi, they wouldn't stop.

"H...Hey Kakashi," she breathed out, her chest heaving for air, "D-Do you know...where they are?"

"I think so. I can smell Kushina-san and Minato-sensei coming in this direction."

What the heck? He was _okay_ after all that running?

 _So_ not fair.

Now she wished she knew how to use her chakra like that but her brother refused to teach her anything too advanced, despite her constant begging.

She let out a cough and answered him with a quiet, _cool_ , before following Kakashi. But before either of them could take another step, a familiar _whoosh_ stopped the two.

Minato stood in front of them, a livid look on his face. His hand was on his hip while his other was rubbing his face, clearly frustrated with...pretty much everything. "I told you to stay home."

Makoto slowly walked up to Kakashi, hiding behind his back―just in case since she was worried for her safety. "S-Sorry Nii-chan b-but―"

"I was the one who forced her to come here. She told me what had happened and I determined that my father had come home, but injured, which is why I guessed you didn't tell me he was back."

"K-Kakashi?" Makoto was surprised, she didn't think he'd take the blame for this.

"The reason why I didn't bother bring you two with me was because he's not conscious, Kakashi."

Despite her young age, she knew immediately that her brother was lying. There was more to this story than he was admitting.

"...What?"

Minato kneeled down and placed his hands on the young boy's shoulders. "He's not awake so for now, the only thing you can do is go home and sleep."

"But…"

"Come on, I'll take you home." He grabbed Kakashi's hand gave Makoto a look that told her to not say another word. It seemed that he figured out that she saw through his lie and wanted her to not say anything about it. "Let's go Makoto."

"I...okay."

* * *

 **Death**

* * *

"Hey Kakashi...are you okay?"

It had been a few weeks since Sakumo had come back from his mission and the news of what he did spread through Konoha like wildfire. Even _she_ knew about it but she did she really care? No. So he saved his teammates, what was the big deal?

"I'm fine Makoto."

She narrowed her eyes. He was eating dinner at the Namikaze household again, for the third time this week.

"You two, clean up," Minato's said from the kitchen. As they were cleaning, she noticed that Kakashi had disappeared again.

"Nii-chan, I'm going to the park," she announced before leaving the house. Her brother didn't say anything back, which usually meant that he didn't care. She climbed the stairs of the apartment and saw that she was right―Kakashi was throwing shurikens in the park.

"Kakashi, that's dangerous."

"I'll be fine," he said, not bothering to turn around.

She scoffed before heading towards him. "I know that. I meant for everyone else that come here."

"Fine."

"...Are you sure you're okay?" she asked once more. "You're being really weird."

Kakashi turned to her, an unreadable look on his face―and it wasn't because of the mask. "You've probably heard about what my father did, right?"

"Yeah," she shrugged her shoulders and began walking towards the swing. "I don't see what the big deal is."

"What?"

"I mean, so what if your father saved them?"

"He broke the rules," Kakashi said in an angry voice.

"...And?" she turned to him. "The people he saved should be happy. I know I'd be if Nii-chan was on that mission." But before he could say anything, she pointed a finger at him. "You better not be blaming your papa about whatever happened. He's getting enough hate from people."

"Still, to be a shinobi, the rules―"

"You're stupid, you know? Sure you got those rules and if you ask me, rules are stupid. You shouldn't leave teammates behind." She sighed and looked up at the evening sky. "Be happy you have a papa, Kakashi. I have Nii-chan but...I don't know what it's like to have one. It's different, you know? My papa died in the last war and Nii-chan always talks about how much he misses him." She met his eyes, her eyes now looking too old to be on a young child like her. "So go play tag with Sakumo-san or something."

It was moments like this that Makoto changed. She seemed older, more mature, and a completely different person. She was still the same but...different.

"I'll go with ya if you want."

He didn't say anything but he nodded. They walked side by side as they started towards his home. "I...blamed my father for what he did." Kakashi's voice came out small and somewhat childish, so different from his usual voice.

"...You're stupid."

"I feel bad now. I'm still mad that he didn't follow the rules but...he's my father, I should not have blamed him for something that already happened."

"Uh-huh," Makoto smiled at him before she started running, dragging him with her. "Hurry up! He's probably waiting!"

But...the moment they reached the Hatake house, they both knew something was wrong. Kakashi was holding his nose, almost as if something smelled, while she was feeling nauseous.

"Kakashi?" He ignored her and ran into his house. She quickly followed and the moment she stepped foot into the house, she knew immediately why she felt the way she did. There was a smell that she only smelled whenever her brother came back from one of his dangerous missions.

It was blood.

She ran as fast as she could after Kakashi and nearly ran into him. "H-Hey Kakashi, where's your...father…" her voice trailed off as she saw what he was looking at. She remained frozen, similar to Kakashi, for a few seconds before she began screaming.

She fell backward onto the wall of the hallway, her back sliding down until she sat on the floor.

No no no...what had happened? There was so much blood!

"Makoto!" She turned to the side and saw her brother running towards them. He was so...slow? Why wasn't he running faster? "...Okay?"

Her Nii-chan was supposed to be _fast_.

"Kakashi...here…" Everything was so cold...so slow… "...Away...ANBU….here…"

She drifted far away into the darkness, the image of blood imprinted on her eyelids.

* * *

 **Death - End**

* * *

 **A/N:** _I'm kinda...okay with this chapter? It's not my favorite but it needed to happen._

 _So Makoto gets first-hand experience with death, starting her long journey as a shinobi! Thank you guys so much the follows and favorites! We got over 100 followers now! I'm so so happy! Thank you guys for the reviews too, they made my entire day :)_

 _Anyways, please leave a review on what you thought about this chapter :D_

 _Until next time!~_


	5. Chapter 5

_Summary:_ From Heaven above and Hell below, she is the Handmaiden of Death, killing without mercy. Death is her only companion in her life; and as she dreams of him, she drowns in tidal waves of blood. Who is she? She is Namikaze Makoto; this is her story.

* * *

 **"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."  
** Frederick Douglass

* * *

Disclaimer: _I don't own Naruto, only any original characters._

* * *

 **Safe and Sound** _ **  
05**_ _: Help_

Minato stood over Makoto's bed, his younger sister softly snoring as she held onto her stuffed bear tightly.

"You should have never of saw that," he whispered, placing his hand gently on the side of her face, his voice dripping with guilt. Guilt for what Kakashi and Makoto saw and guilt for not helping the older man. Sakumo had _trusted_ him...and he failed him.

Kakashi and Makoto...they were both too young to have seen death like that.

However, before he could further blame himself for tonight's events, a knock on the bedroom door brought him out of his thoughts. "Minato?"

Turning around, Kushina slowly opened the door and motioned for him to follow her. Taking one last look at Makoto, he left caught up to her. "Hey, how is he?" he asked as they passed by the guest room that held Kakashi.

"Well, he's as good as he can be-ttebane," she answered quietly. The two sat down on the couch side by side, the air around them thick with both grief and shock. Kushina's shoulders shook as she buried her face in her hands and seeing this, Minato wrapped his arm around his girlfriend to try to comfort her to the best of his abilities.

"Kushina..." he tried saying but she quickly hid her face in the crook of his neck.

"I should have known," her voice came out small a few seconds later.

"You couldn't have." At this point, he could feel her tears on his neck as she cried for her teacher. "Hey, look at me." He gently moved her face so their eyes met, her purple eyes with his blue. "It's not your fault."

They remained in this position for a few seconds but in a sudden change of emotion, Kushina grabbed his hands that were on the side of her face as her mood changed. "...You're right, it's not my fault-ttebane. It's _all_ of our faults," she growled out. "Because of some... _rule_ , he had to die. Ryū and Hoshino blamed him too!" She shoved Minato aside and stood up. "He saved their asses and what does he get in return-ttebane? _Nothing!"_

Minato knew it was time to intervene when he saw her eyes flash red. "Kushina, you need to calm down―"

"It's all of Konoha's fault-ttebane! Is this how they treat an injured shinobi? Even the damn Hokage didn't do anything -" At this point, her pupils were slanted as her anger began controlling her.

"Kushina, get a hold of your anger―"

Breathing heavily, she looked at Minato and growled, "Do they even deserve to be alive?" she suddenly asked, her voice now deeper than her usual voice. It was a voice that did not belong on her nor on anyone else. It was a voice that reeked with hate and it _terrified_ him.

" _Kushina!_ " Minato grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "You need to control yourself _now_." He could sense the demonic chakra flowing through her more prominently as the agitated chakra of several ANBU agents that kept watch on Konoha's most kept secret started moving around outside the apartment.

It was funny―Konoha's best didn't know that he could sense them.

Yet.

But that wasn't the point right now.

Blinking several times, Kushina's eyes widened as she looked around, confused. Meeting Minato's eyes, she let out a sob as her pupils returned to normal, the red on her eyes shifting back to purple. "Oh no, oh no no no…" She threw her arms around Minato and cried into his vest. "I'm sorry-ttebane."

"It's okay," he said into her hair, comforting her by returning her embrace. "It'll be okay."

Little did he know, today's events would affect have lasting effects that even he couldn't have envisioned.

* * *

 _One Month Later  
_ _ **July**_

" _Nii-chan?" Makoto called out into the dark apartment. It was empty and cold and oh god it scared her. "W-Where are you?" She hugged herself as she walked slowly through the living room and towards the bedrooms._

 _It was so scary...where was everyone?_

 _Sniffling, she opened the door to her brother's room and saw no one―it was how it usually looked whenever he was on a mission. Clean, folded, and empty. Moving away from the room, she walked towards her own. Slowly opening the door, she let out a scream at the body she saw on the floor._

 _There was blood_ _ **everywhere**_ _._

 _She began turning around to get the hell away from here but let out another scream at the person behind her._

" _Makoto, it's me!" her brother sang out. His face was hidden by the shadows of his bangs but she saw blood dripping from his face._

" _N-Nii-chan?"_

 _In a speed that made him famous, he grabbed her neck―_

Makoto shot up from her bed and began crying.

No no no, that wasn't real!

She jumped off of her bed and ran as fast as she could to her brother's room _―it wasemptyohno wherewas he?!_

"Makoto? What are you doing up _―_ " Whirling around, she saw Minato standing there, a sweater in his hand.

He was okay, _he was okay_.

She remained where she was as she began sobbing harder. Minato, seeing this, quickly rushed to his younger sister's side, the laundry forgotten. "Hey, you're okay. It's all okay," he said into her ear as he picked her up into his arms. She held on as she cried, tears and snot running down the side of his neck. Did he care? Hell no, he was worried about his sister more.

A few minutes passed when Makoto was finally able to control herself. She stayed rooted in the same position, her face hidden in his neck as he rubbed comforting circles into her back. "Nii-chan's okay, Nii-chan's okay…" he heard her mumble to herself as she tried breathing again, her crying causing involuntary hiccups.

"I'm okay," he said in hopes that it would comfort her as well. "You see?" She pulled away slightly as he plastered a smile on his face. "Nii-chan's okay."

She nodded her head and he took this as a cue to put her down. He sat them both down on the couch, newly washed clothes littered everywhere. "I…"

"I'm not going to ask you what you saw or what happened. I'm just...going to sit here and fold the laundry." He handed her the stuffed bear she dropped. "You can help if you want?" She said yes and grabbed the sweater he had dropped earlier from the floor, and began folding it. Her brother did the same, grabbing a random shirt from the pile next to him.

The siblings remained quiet throughout the rest of the night.

The following morning, Makoto quickly left her apartment, not wanting to be confronted by her brother of what happened.

"Uchiha Taka and Namikaze Makoto, you're up!" her sensei called out, his voice resonating throughout the courtyard. Groans quickly followed the teacher's announcement as the students realized that today would be different than the typical spars that usually occurred during class.

"Hai, Sensei."

Makoto simply groaned like most of the students around her. Not only was she fighting a boy, something they rarely did―a boy who _also_ was from a Clan, mind you―she was fighting against the one person who probably hated her more than Nao did.

It was the boy she told off on the first day of school.

Obito only gave her a sympathetic look before patting her on her shoulder. "I believe in you!" She tried smiling but it turned out more of a cringe than anything.

As their teacher took his position next to the circle, Makoto and Taka both walked up to each other. While her face remained emotionless, almost as if she were bored, his face was flowing with emotion. It shifted from anger to annoyance, only to shift again to glee. It didn't escape the teacher's eye when he saw that Makoto was _starting_ to get slightly annoyed. Whether it was because of who she was fighting or because of how Taka looked, he didn't know.

But the one thing he did know was that this was going to be an interesting fight.

"Begin!"

Immediately, Makoto shot forward. Her speed was unrivaled in the class - in fact, she was the fastest out of her entire age group, even beating all of the clan children - much to their dismay. However, it did not mean that Taka could not keep up. Living up to his clan name, he was able to keep up with the various kicks and punches that Makoto was throwing at him. He stayed on the defense for a while and changed to an offense the first chance he got.

Makoto, on the other hand, purposely allowed herself to leave an opening. Just like Ero-sensei had taught her, by feigning weakness, the opponent left their vulnerable areas open - and Taka did exactly that.

At this point, their match was halfway done.

As she took the kick to her side, without hesitating a second, she swung her right arm, punching the boy directly on his cheek. They both fell onto the ground opposite of each other around the same time but didn't stay there. Makoto, as fast as she could, rolled to her side and jumped into the air. While bringing her foot down, Taka had slightly recovered and rolled to his side to avoid this kick.

Although their sensei called the minute mark, they both paid it no attention.

For Taka, it was about his Clan and his reputation. As a child from a clan such as his, he couldn't allow some unknown orphan to beat him.

For Makoto, it was simply about passing the final. If she failed this, she would have to come in for summer school, something she didn't want happening.

When the match was finally called, the two children had been mid-kick. Their legs pushed against each other, high in the air, as they both breathed heavily from their fight. Although finished, the anger was clearly seen through their eyes. Whether it was from their hatred for each other or for something that was occurring outside of school with family, neither wouldn't know.

"You did great!" Obito exclaimed as she limped back to her friend.

"Thanks," was her response as she sat down, tired. "At least I won't have to come in during the summer."

Her friend sat down next to her, the both of them now ignoring the matches that were occurring. "Are you okay?" he asked, worried for his friend. Her eye bags were dark, different than a few weeks ago. She constantly fell asleep during class, something that he couldn't even imagine Makoto doing before.

It was scary to see her like this.

Makoto waved her hand, trying to dismiss his concern. "I'm fine." He narrowed his eyes in concern and remained next to her until his match was called.

"Uchiha Obito and Nara Katsumi."

Makoto squeezed his shoulder. "Good luck, I believe in you," she said, returning the same words he said to her half an hour ago. And she meant it. They had been training together for the past couple of week with her brother and even _she_ could tell that he had improved.

"Yosh, I'm gonna win this and we're going to have a celebratory snack at that dango place!"

For this match, Makoto stood up and watched as her best friend took his place in the circle. The teacher started the match and immediately, just like her Nii-chan had taught him, he brought his hands up to block the punch that Katsumi had thrown.

"You got this Obito!" she shouted out.

"Go Obito!" Quickly turning to her side, Makoto saw Rin cheering on her friend.

Heh, he's going to _like_ this.

"That's right, you heard Rin! Beat his ass!" However, the moments those words left her mouth, her teacher shot her a glare. She sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck as she apologized for her use of words. "Sorry Sensei!"

"Match!" Obito immediately shot his hand forward to help Katsumi up from his position on the ground. After they did the seal of reconciliation, her friend ran over to her, glee written all over his face.

"Did you see that?" he asked excitedly.

Makoto quickly nodded her head before pushing him towards Rin. "You know what else I saw? Rin-chan was cheering you on!" she whispered, a genuine smile on her face.

He looked back at her, his face red from what she was guessing embarrassment _and_ the fight. "R-Really?"

"Yeah!" Pushing him once more, she said, "Go talk to her!"

"I-I will!" Giving him a pair of thumbs up, she watched as Obito walked over to his long time crush.

Makoto, on the other hand, returned back to her previous position. Bored, she did the only thing that came to mind―she slept. Laying the back of her head against the wall, she closed her eyes, now oblivious to her surroundings.

She didn't know how much time had passed but when she opened her eyes, Obito was staring with owl-like eyes as he poked at her. "Hey, wake up."

"...Huh?"

"Class is over. Rin was the last to go and she just finished." There were stars in his eyes as he recalled the last moments of the match. "She was so cool! She punched Rika down a second before Sensei called the match!"

"That's cool," she said with a yawn, slowly stretching out the sleep from her bones. "So are we going to go get dango?"

"Yup." Grabbing her arm, he began running, dragging her along with him. "Whatcha gonna get?"

"I'm gonna get mitarashi," she tried saying as she tried avoiding the several obstacles Obito didn't seem to realize he was dragging them into.

Not paying attention, Makoto nearly ran into Obito's back as he had suddenly stopped running. "Obito! What are -"

"Hi, Minato-san!"

Looking around her friend, she saw that her brother stood in their path. "Nii-chan?"

Her brother walked over to them, a smile on his face. "Hi, you two."

Obito looked at her quizzically, silently asking her if she knew why he was here. She only shrugged her shoulders in return, just as confused as he was. "What's up?"

"Nothing's up, I just need to talk to you," he said to her.

"Oh...but Obito and I were gonna―"

Her friend suddenly whirled around to her and waved his hands. "It's okay! We can go tomorrow!"

"A-Are you sure?"

"Yup! I'm gonna go home, I'll see ya tomorrow!" he said his goodbye with a large smile and ran off, bumping into several people in his path along the way.

"Come on, let's go home," Minato held out his hand and she took it.

She looked up at him, now curious as to why he was here. "What's wrong?" she asked a few minutes later.

"Makoto…" Minato returned her look as he stopped walking and kneeled down to her. "Are you okay?"

She tilted her head and nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"Because," her brother placed a hand on her head and said, "You came into the living room, crying, remember? Your nightmare?"

She simply shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, I always get nightmares Nii-chan."

"...Don't play dumb with me Makoto, you know what I mean."

At the tone of his voice, she began shuffling. "I'm fine―"

"Well, I don't think so." He crouched down and rested his hands on his knees. "Takahashi-Sensei told me today that you were falling asleep in class. He said he wasn't that bothered since you're passing his class, but he's worried that you're not sleeping enough."

Makoto, at this point, was beginning to sweat from both the heat and nervousness she was feeling. "Well, Sensei's worrying too much."

"No, he's not. He has a right to worry―you're his student." Minato sighed at her silence and stood back up. "Makoto―"

"I'm _fine_ Nii-chan, I just haven't been sleeping well, okay?" She put her hands in her pockets and began kicking the rocks under her feet. "Can we go? I have homework to do."

"Hey―" She looked at Minato and he knew that their conversation was now over. She had closed herself off, something she was getting eerily good at as of late. "Fine," he narrowed his eyes as they began walking again. "But this conversation isn't over."

When the siblings returned home, sitting on their couch was Jiraiya with scrolls―opened and unopened―sprawled all over the floor of the living room. "Hey, you two!"

"Sensei?" Minato walked over to him and asked, carefully avoiding the scrolls, "What brings you back to Konoha?"

"Well…" Jiraiya looked at him and sighed. "I heard about what happened with Sakumo. I'm late but I'm here to pay my respects."

At the name, Minato flinched as he glanced at Makoto, who was walking towards her room. She didn't stop when she heard Sakumo's name but he saw how she had suddenly tensed at it.

"Is she okay?" Jiraiya quietly asked, seeing the same thing Minato did.

He only shook his head in response. "No, I don't think so. She saw...the body with Kakashi." Minato rubbed his forehead as he began pacing. Thank God Sensei was here, he needed someone to talk to now more than ever. Kushina was gone, away on a mission, so he was alone when it came to these things. "Sensei...I don't know what to do."

"Why? What's wrong with her?"

Sitting down with a thud, Minato recalled everything that had happened in the past month. "She's learned how to close herself off from everyone." With a groan, he continued, "She's not even sleeping well anymore. She's always waking me up, complaining about nightmares. It's to the point that her Academy teacher told me that she's falling asleep during class."

"Hmm…" With this Jiraiya stood up and wrote something down on a slip of paper. "Go take her to a child psychologist, kid. Maybe they can help."

Taking the note from him, Minato looked over the name. "Yamanaka Takatoshi?" he asked, looking up.

"One of the best I know. He's helped a lot―he even helped Mikoto-chan after her father died a few years back."

At the name of his former teammate, Minato's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Yup."

Looking at the kanji on the paper, he nodded his head. "Thanks, Sensei."

"No problem kid. You know I love Mako-chan―I'm worried for her too." Shrugging his shoulders he also mentioned, "You should get him to check out Kakashi too, while you're at it. Because if she's this bad, imagine him."

* * *

 **Help**

* * *

Yamanaka Takatoshi was having an average day―and by average, he meant meeting mentally unstable twelve-year-old killers who threatened to either castrate him or to slit his throat.

But like he said, an average day.

His beautifully average day, however, was interrupted when a blonde burst into his office, looking stressed. "Can I help you?"

"Oh!" The boy pulled in another blonde that looked _exactly_ like him. "Um...Sensei told me to ask you for help?"

Takatoshi―he like being called _Taka_ for short― smiled and folded his hands on his desk. "I'd love to help but you're going to need to book an appointment."

"Sensei told me about this…" The blonde began searching for something, shoving his hand into every pocket he had. "Where _is_ it?" he asked himself, looking frantic.

"...Nii-chan, it's right here." The tiny blonde put her hand into his leg pocket and pulled out a scroll.

"Oh, thanks." Quickly handing the scroll to him, the blonde scratched his head. "Sorry, it's been a long day."

"It's okay," Taka said. Opening the scroll, his eyes immediately widened as he saw who had written it. He knew this handwriting _anywhere._ "...Your sensei is Jiraiya?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah!"

Taka forced a smile as he began reading what his friend wrote. He knew he wasn't going to like this. Jiraiya had a tendency to blackmail many of his friends into doing stuff for them.

He knew from experience―this wouldn't be the first time his friend did this to him.

 _Taka,_

 _The tall blonde is my apprentice and his kid sister―the mini-him that I'm going to guess he brought along―is having some trouble. I don't know the full story but she saw Sakumo's body after his suicide. Minato might also bring along another kid―Sakumo's son. I'm going to guess that he's having some trouble right now with the same problem too._

 _Treat them. Thanks!_

 _Jiraiya_

 _P.S. Don't forget, if you pull some sort of bullshit excuse like "book an appointment," I'm gonna tell the entire Jounin Corps about what you did in Asuka._

 _Oh yes, I'm pulling that on you._

"Why _Asuka?_ " he complained underneath his breath, forgetting about his guests in the room. "He _knows_ I regret it!" He _didn't_ need to be reminded of what he did at that sea-side town a few years ago. Oh, he thought it wasn't possible to hate someone _this_ much.

A cough interrupted his thoughts. Remembering the two blondes, he looked up from the scroll with slight embarrassment. "Alright, so I'm guessing you're Minato then, right?" he asked a second later, pointing to the taller brother.

"Yes, sir."

Taka stood up and looked at the little kid. "And you are…?"

"I-I'm Makoto. Um...Namikaze Makoto," she introduced herself shyly, hiding behind her brother's legs.

"I'm Yamanaka Takatoshi but you can call me Taka."

She nodded her head before looking up at Minato. "Nii-chan, why are we here?"

The blonde sheepishly looked at Taka before telling his sister, "He's going to help you."

Makoto narrowed her eyes at him. "...With what?"

Minato wanted to talk more but Taka brought up a hand, stopping him. "Minato-san, how about you wait outside? Usually, I talk with the kids alone."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, usually these appointments are a one on one session."

"I…" Minato took one look at his sister and it seemed that he made a decision. "I'll be right outside then, alright Makoto?"

"W-Wait―" She grabbed for her brother but he quickly maneuvered himself away from her hand. "Nii-chan!"

He only smiled at her before nodding his head at Taka. "Thank you for helping us," he said before closing the door.

"Well, Makoto-chan, why don't you take a seat in the chair while I go get some papers."

The child sat herself down, the softness of the cushions almost engulfing her. She had a look of complete boredom on her face but the anger in her eyes told a different story.

Not to mention the dark circles under those eyes. Those _also_ told a different story.

Well, that's why she was here. He was going to help her to the best of his ability. Pulling out a pen and his notebook, he asked, "So, why are you here?"

"...Because my brother forced me too."

"No, not like that," he said with a laugh. Putting his pen aside, he brought his hands together once more and leaned a little to get a better look at her. " _Why_ are you here?"

She looked small...maybe she was too young to fully comprehend -

"He's worried that I'm not getting enough sleep," she grumbled, interrupting his train of thought.

Nodding his head, he took note of this _and_ the twitches that she was doing. "And why is that?"

"...I'm havin' nightmares."

"Nightmares?" He leaned back into his own chair. Hm...perhaps this was the main cause of the problems. If nightmares were it, what followed was either insomnia or sleep deprivation. "What do you see in these nightmares?"

"I dunno," she crossed her arms over her chest and said. She wouldn't look at him in the eyes and she continued to stare at something on his right. "They're just nightmares, I don't remember 'em."

She was lying.

"Are you sure you don't remember them, Makoto-chan?"

"Yeah."

Smiling, he nodded his head. This was as far as they were getting this week. He had enough experience with children to know when the conversation was over. "Alright then." Writing something down, he gave her the paper. "Give this to your brother, okay? I'll see you again next week."

"...What?" she stood up and followed him as they walked to the door. "I'm coming back?"

"Until we figure out what's causing these nightmares, yes, we'll be seeing each other soon." She grumbled something he chose not hear as he greeted Minato once more. "I handed her the next appointment slip so make sure she comes next week." Smiling at the siblings, he bowed his head. "It was a pleasure meeting you both."

"Thank you so much, Yamanaka-sensei."

Shaking his head, he laughed. "It's fine, I was bored anyways. Oh, also, Jiraiya mentioned that you might bring along a…" He racked his brain for the name. "...Kakashi?" He hoped he got the name right.

Minato nodded. "Yes, I'm trying to get him to come with me here but he's...a little harder to find."

Well, what do you know, he got the name right.

After they said their goodbyes, Taka sat down called for his assistant to bring up the Namikaze family files as he pulled out his lunch. Prepping his area, he was brought the files a few minutes later.

It was time to read them and see what he could do.

Briefly glancing at the parents' file, he began reading Minato's. Huh...sixteen and already a jōnin, quite a feat for someone his age.

It must have been hard, Taka though, for a young teen like Minato to raise his younger sister. It showed that he had lived with a foster home until he graduated the Academy but still… Taka shook his head and continued reading. Nothing much jumped out at him after that―at least, information that _he_ needed to know―and placed his file aside for Makoto's. He began reading her file as he shoved his salad into his mouth. She just turned six a month ago and was currently enrolled in the Academy. She was a _great_ student, passing most of her tests with flying colors. Although...her teacher did write down how she was falling asleep in class, just like he guessed.

So...what was the problem?

Rereading the letter from Jiraiya, it said that she had seen Sakumo's body…

The only thing he could think of was that Makoto was traumatized by what she saw. This was probably her first experience with death that she could remember―as her parents were both dead―and there was a rumor that said Sakumo had committed seppuku. Her nightmares probably centered around Sakumo and all the blood that must have surrounded the man.

If what she saw really was a body with that much blood surrounding it...this made things much more difficult, especially with her age. But...as cold as it may have sounded, she was going to have to get used to death if she was wanting to be a shinobi. Yes, she was still young, but at the end of the day, if she didn't want to deal with this, she wasn't fit to be a shinobi.

Frowning, Taka sighed. It wouldn't be the first time he's dealt with a six-year-old but the smaller children tend to be trickier to help because of how young they were. Most refused to cooperate with him.

Continuing his lunch, he asked his assistant to then bring Kakashi's file. As he flipped through this kid's file though, he could only be shocked. Five-years-old and already he's accomplished this much…the kid was going to graduate at six! Groaning, Taka rested his head on his hand.

He _really_ had his work cut out for him.

The rest of his day ended quite normally, allowing him to finish his average day. The following day, however, was different. It began quite normally, like usual, but everything changed around noon. He was once more eating lunch, only to be interrupted by, guess who―Namikaze Minato.

"Yamanaka-Sensei?"

"Minato-kun, I wasn't expecting you this quickly!" He greeted the boy with the same amount of enthusiasm as he did yesterday. "Did you bring along…?"

"Yes," he answered. He seemed to struggle as he pulled in a small child Taka could only guess was Hatake Kakashi. "Kakashi, I know you don't want to be here―" He could hear them arguing, much to his amusement.

"Yes, Minato-Sensei, you're right." With what could only be a show of power, he watched the Namikaze boy practically throw the boy in.

...Wow, talk about rough handling a kid.

"Well, I don't care." Giving the boy a smile, Minato said, "I care about _you_ so that's why I brought you here."

"Your Sensei is right, Kakashi-kun. Now, why don't you take a seat, ne?"

The boy nearly protested but one look at his teacher seemed to have frightened him enough to change his mind. "Well, I'll be sitting right outside, okay?" And with that, Minato left the room leaving the pair alone.

"Now, Kakashi―"

"Do you truly believe that I am going to tell you how I feel?" Kakashi narrowed his eyes, his back ramrod straight and his dark eyes unwavering. "You are a man that I have no past knowledge and relationship with―I can't trust you."

Taka tilted his head and nodded. His vocabulary usage was...impressive, to say the least. "That's understandable but I want you to know that you can trust me. Nothing you say leaves this room."

"That is the proper procedure when a psychiatrist talks to their patient, is it not?" Kakashi inquired, his calculating eyes looked far too old for him. "While I do understand the benefits that you as a doctor here can have on several people, I believe you will not help me in...whatever problem Minato-Sensei seems to think I have."

"Kakashi-kun...you're still a child, no one will see you weak or childish for grieving for your father." At the mention of Sakumo, Taka saw his eyes harden.

Ah, bingo.

"My father was a man, who, as a result of breaking rules that were kept in place to _protect_ him and his village, died."

Taka could only be taken back by pretty much...everything? This child was everything he was _not_ trained for. "...Rules?"

But rules...rules were something he could work with. Rules were fundamental to a child's growth and perhaps they allowed Kakashi a sense of normalcy in this time of conflict.

"The Shinobi Rules, sir." The boy looked down and seemed to think about something before continuing. "Those rules are to not only protect Konoha but the shinobi that reside within them."

Well, his files weren't kidding when they said in big bold letters, _prodigy_.

"That's what you get from the rules?"

"Yes." Their eyes met and in a tone that did not belong, he said, "And as a consequence of not following these rules, my father died."

Talk about being blunt. "Why do you focus so much on the rules?" he asked. "Do you find them comforting?"

"Comforting?" Kakashi scoffed. "No. The rules are common sense. I mean...I looked up to my father―I aspired to be like him, but he broke the rules that make a shinobi who and what they are."

"Do you not look up to him anymore?" Kakashi remained silent, giving him enough of an answer. A different approach, perhaps? "I sense that you felt betrayed by him, am I...right?" Taka frowned at the silence he was receiving. "You focus so much on rules, have you thought about things...other than them?"

"If you are asking that I care only for rules, you are far more stupid than I thought."

 _Okay_ , that wasn't what he was expecting but at least it was...progress? Although, being called stupid by a five-year-old made him question whether or not this was actually progress or the boy simply belittling him.

Kakashi crossed his arms over his chest. "Of course I don't surround my life with just rules. However, I do see the importance in them and strive to be able to follow them."

"Why, though? You say that they protect shinobi, are you saying that you are protecting yourself?" The boy remained silent but the sudden twitch in his eye gave him away.

 _Bingo_ again. Taka felt something akin to triumph, although he made sure to not show it. This was it―he managed to receive an answer to the question that he had from the beginning. This...thing Kakashi had with the rules was a form of a coping mechanism of his father's death. He believed that he was protecting himself and perhaps...his loved ones?

"You are _five_ , Kakashi. You really do not need to be worrying yourself over these types of problems. You're still in the academy, you're a _student_ , not a shinobi." Yes, he knew that the boy was probably going to be graduating by the end of the year, but that was hardly the point. That was the future, Kakashi was here _right now_.

This, however, seemed to have hit a nerve with him. "While I may be five, I am far more mature and stronger than those _twice_ my age. I plan to become a shinobi that will live to be far stronger than my father and protect those I care for, including this village, even if that means sacrificing anything."

"Kakashi―" Ignoring him, Kakashi stood up and walked out of the room, seemingly having the last word. Taka, on the other hand, remained seated in his chair, blinking.

Wow...talk about a wild day.

Sighing, he stood up and walked to the now opened door. He saw Minato calling after Kakashi but the boy didn't bother listening and continued in whatever path he was heading towards. "Um...Minato-san?"

"I...uh...um, yes, Yamanaka-sensei?"

Taka scratched the back of his neck and carefully told the young Namikaze his true thoughts. "Kakashi is seriously grieving and, well, his...reaction to his father's death is quite astonishing, to say the least. While I've treated many children his age and older, his coping mechanism is one I rarely see." Shaking his head, Taka continued. "A five-year-old with his mentality...I've never met anyone like him and quite frankly―"

"You don't know how to treat him, do you?'

"...I'm sorry Minato-san, I truly don't. That doesn't mean, however, I won't try." Forcing a smile, Taka placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Do try to bring him whenever possible. I realize that he won't want to meet with me as much as what we have planned for your younger sister but I believe I can help him."

Bowing, Minato said, "Thank you so much for what you have done." With that, he took his leave, allowing Taka to now process today's meeting with Kakashi alone. Although the teen had promised to bring Kakashi to him whenever he could, deep down, Taka knew that the possibility of seeing the young child was zero to none after today's events, and this saddened him―it truly did. He wanted to help the boy because he had so much potential as an adult. If he was psychologically damaged at this young of an age and with this war looming right over the horizon? The boy was bound to be, well, screwed up as an adult shinobi―and that was only if he survived that long―as morbid as he may have sounded. He wanted to prevent unnecessary things like this to happen.

Returning to his desk, the Yamanaka pulled out a pen and wrote down in the file for any future references in case Kakashi was to meet with other psychologists, _keep watch_.

* * *

 **Help - End**

* * *

 **A/N:** _Kinda an okay kind of chapter. Not quite my best work and I'm not super proud of it, but it's the best I was able to write. I'm not sure if you guys liked the way I wrote Kakashi and Makoto, and their interaction with the psychologist but I tried?_

 _So...Kakashi was kinda OOC in the last chapter. After getting a review that opened my eyes to that, I lowkey shit myself. That was the ONE thing I did not want to do so thank you fluffpenguin! Because of this awkward OOC moment that should not have occurred, I tried making it up here in this chapter!_

 _But I also want you guys to know that my thought while writing the last was the fact that Sakumo's death, while a key reason for Kakashi's character development, isn't really that heavily talked about in Naruto - at least, to my knowledge and the wikia I looked at - so what I had thought about was that Kakashi, in the end, was a child at this time. Yes, he was a genius and yes, he had a more mature way of thinking, but at the end of the day, he was a_ kid! _He would know the basics of what occurred and why everyone was mad but at the same time, he wouldn't be so sure about why exactly everyone treats his father the way he is and even with his prodigious mind, he would start blaming his own father for what he did because of everyone. It's in a way, peer pressure? When I kept enforcing the "but the rules" and the "he broke rules" part in the last chapter it was because as a child - at least to me and many of the children I interact with - rules tend to be beneficial to growth. And to Kakashi, who from the beginning thought the rules were important, to see the one man he looked up and respected break these rules would instill some sort of betrayal in him. So I hope I made it up in this chapter! Also, damn, I did not really mean to write_ this _much but oh well._

 _Thank you so much for the constructive criticism! I love it so please leave more! It helps me grow as a writer to become a better one, something I strive to be :)_

 _Also, please_ _ **review**_ _! Even small tiny ones make me super happy and motivated to write more!_


	6. Chapter 6

_Summary:_ From Heaven above and Hell below, she is the Handmaiden of Death, killing without mercy. Death is her only companion in her life; and as she dreams of him, she drowns in tidal waves of blood. Who is she? She is Namikaze Makoto; this is her story.

* * *

 **"I got a long way to go and a long memory,  
I've been searching for an answer,  
Always just out of reach.  
Blood on the floor, sirens repeat,  
I been searching for the courage  
To face my enemies."**

 _Battle Symphony,_ Linkin Park

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, only any original characters.

* * *

 _ **Beta**_ **:** ShootingLightStar

* * *

 **Safe and Sound** _ **  
06:**_ _Graduation_

Makoto stood alone, watching her brother and Kakashi train as Kushina was quietly humming from behind her.

"Makoto-chan, can you help me?"

Taking one last look at the two, Makoto slowly dragged herself towards Kushina, clearly down. She was silent as she set up the picnic that the Kushina had planned and the Uzumaki could tell that something was bothering the little Namikaze. She even guessed that it had something to do with Kakashi and Minato.

"What's wrong-ttebane?" she asked, trying to meet Makoto in the eye.

"...Nothing," she grumbled quietly, refusing to look at her.

At this, Kushina narrowed her eyes. "No, something _is_ wrong, so tell me."

It seemed that Makoto had to think for a few seconds before responding. "It's just...it's not _fair_." Makoto, almost as if she had an attitude, sat herself down on the red picnic blanket and crossed her arms over her chest. "Nii-chan's gonna be gone for _three months_ and all he's been doing is training with Kakashi-kun."

Despite how angry Makoto clearly was, Kushina struggled to hold in her laugh at the face the little girl was making. Out of all things Kushina has seen the past six years she's known the girl, she never saw Makoto acting like this. The girl was _jealous!_ "Makoto―"

"I know Nii-chan's Kakashi's teacher but that doesn't mean he should spend most of his time with _him!_ He should also spend it with us too!"

Kushina continued placing the obentos she made this morning onto the blanket. "This is going to be their first mission out of Konoha together-ttebane. Minato-kun's nervous about the chance of something happening, that's why he's been training so hard with Kakashi for the past week-ttebane," she tried reasoning.

"But that's the thing! He _never_ trains with me! All the things I learn are because of you or Ero-sensei!" Makoto complained. At the nickname she still called Jiraiya, Kushina snorted. "Is it because I'm a girl?"

Oh, she needed to put a stop to this quickly. "Of course not-ttebane!"

"Really?" Makoto tilted her head as she recalled what had happened earlier today at the Academy. "Because the boys at the academy say that I'll never be as strong as they are because I'm a girl. They say that I'm too weak."

Kushina's eye ticked as she recalled similar events when she was a child here in Konoha. "Well, you go punch those boys, you hear me?!" She flew up and stomped her foot. "We girls are _better_ than men-ttebane! We have to go through periods, pregnancy, being a mother, all while being a shinobi! Men complain about the stupidest things and they think that just because they have a penis that they're better?" Pointing to Makoto―who was currently shocked at the sudden change in tone―Kushina growled out, holding a fist in the air, "Tch, women are stronger _and_ better-ttebane. Don't let _anyone_ tell you that you're below them just because you're a girl, got it?"

Gulping, Makoto furiously nodded her head before turning around to look for her brother. She saw him staring at Kushina, red in the face, while Kakashi stood behind him paler than usual―quite a feat, especially for someone as pale as he was.

"Hmph, you got it." Kushina quickly sat back down nonchalantly, as if nothing had happened. "But, going back to your brother, he's just worried-ttebane. He doesn't want you to get hurt nor does he wanna hurt you." The sound of fighting started once more from behind them.

"I...guess?" Still reeling from Kushina's overbearing personality and argument, Makoto continued, "But...I wish he'd spend more time with me. I'm gonna miss him." Kushina's face quickly softened at this. Of course, she was going to miss her brother, it was normal. He was her family and she was just worried.

"I know, I am too," she gently said, squeezing the girl's shoulder. "I know that he's gonna miss ya too-ttebane."

At this, the conversation ended as the two girls went back to setting up the picnic. However, the air around them was much clearer, as Makoto's frustration that had been clouding it was now gone.

About fifteen minutes later, Kushina announced, "Kakashi, Minato-kun, lunch!" As the two ended their fight and came running towards them, she handed Makoto a juice box while placing each individual obento in a circle. "Here you go!" She sat back as she watched everyone's faces change to a look of awe at what they each received. "I made all of you a special obento!"

It took her a few hours _but_ it was worth it. She had woken up early this morning and made every single one of their favorite foods and carefully placed them into the boxes. She even made Makoto and Kakashi's obento into cute characters from Makoto's favorite book, _Polar Bear's First Shopping Trip._ Although...she knew the cute design would be wasted on Kakashi.

But he was a kid in the end―she didn't care if he thought it was childish-ttebane.

"This has takoyaki!" Makoto squealed out, her blue eyes lighting up. "You made takoyaki for me?"

Kushina grinned. "Of course I did! Just like I made Kakashi some salt-broiled saury!" She then leaned down and grinned, "I even made them into cute bear ears." Makoto giggled in response.

After they finished showing off their obentos, they all clapped their hands together and said, "Itadakimasu!"

For a while, only the sounds of eating could be heard as the four remained silent. However, Makoto made a sound and suddenly pointed her chopsticks at Kushina, asking with a mouth full of food, "Why don't you go on missions outside Konoha?"

The sudden question caught her off guard and Kushina choked on her food. She looked uneasily to Minato before answering, "Well, I'm not originally from Konoha-ttebane and because of um...that and other reasons, Konoha views me as a liability." Although being from Uzushiogakure wasn't the reason, it was simpler to make it into one. "I go on missions outside Konoha but those are pretty…rare occasions."

"Oh...wait, liability?"

Kakashi interrupting their conversation, he quickly turned to Makoto with a smug look. "Liability means―"

Makoto scoffed before waving her chopsticks in the air, cutting him off. "I know what the word liability means, genius; I'm wondering _how_ she's a liability." He looked slightly surprised before quickly looking down, returning to his salted saury. "So why are you, Kushina-neesan? I thought you were really strong!"

The Uzumaki, ignoring the fact that a six-year-old that wasn't a confirmed prodigy knew what the term liability meant, shook her head. In an exaggerated tone, she leaned in and whispered with slight killing intent, "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

Although smart for her age, Makoto was, in the end, a child. Her reaction was immediate as she squeezed herself right next to Minato, now scared. "I'll never ask again, I swear."

"That's right-ttebane." With this ending the conversation, Kushina clapped her hands together. "Let's continue eating! I even made _dessert!_ "

* * *

 **Graduation**

* * *

 _Four years later..._

"Makoto-chan, I'm happy to see you again."

"...I saw you last week, Taka-Sensei."

"Maa, it doesn't mean I don't look forward to our meetings." Taka smiled at her. "So how are things?"

Makoto looked down, fiddling with her hands. "Well…" she began, "Nii-chan came back from his mission." Then, she quickly added, "Again."

"Ah, that's great! You were looking forward to his return if I remember correctly."

"Yeah...this is supposed to be his last mission for a while, apparently," she said, still refusing to meet his eyes. "I mean, I'm really happy he's back―like usual―but I'm telling you, he's different." She finally looked at the Yamanaka and he wasn't surprised to see heavy emotions in her eyes. "I dunno how but he's not the same anymore. He's always smiling and sayin' he's fine but I know him―I know he's not."

At this point, almost all of those who worked with shinobi or who were shinobi in Konoha―and even perhaps other villages as well―knew of Minato and his now famous jutsu. Even _he's_ heard rumors of it in his cramped, boring office, of how Minato was wiping out Iwa-nins left and right, and he knew that there's bound to be some sort of mental repercussions that come with that kind of killing.

People dealt with killing differently and perhaps this was Minato's coping method―smiling through the pain.

"War changes people, Makoto-chan." She would need to realize this, especially with her graduation so soon. She may not be thrust directly into the war but he saw the statistics―the amount of KIA or MIA was at an all time high for Konoha. At this rate, she was bound to be sent into the battlefield with her team for something as simple as delivery in as soon as a few months.

However, it wasn't as if she could read his mind, so Makoto simply slouched further into her seat, oblivious to his thoughts. "That's what everyone says," she muttered, clearly unsatisfied with the answer he had given her. "But what can I do to help him? To make him see that I care?"

At this, Taka couldn't help but chuckle. It seemed that she didn't see how proud Minato truly was of her and of how much he knew that she cared. "I think you don't have to worry about that, Makoto-chan. I'm pretty sure he knows you care about him."

"...Still, should I make him a shake? Or maybe a cupcake?" She tilted her head in thought. "Maybe a cookie! He always seems happy when Kushina-neesan makes him one!"

The joy on her face never made him forget why he loved helping children. Even in a war-torn environment like this, they still held onto their innocence. He knew that with Makoto graduating tomorrow, this innocence that she held might soon disappear like he thought earlier, but it made him glad to know that he had helped her during these past four years.

"You know what, I think cookies might be a great idea. He'll definitely appreciate that." Crap, now that he was thinking about cookies, he wanted one.

"You think so?"

He nodded his head. "I know so."

Makoto gave him a 100-watt smile and Taka felt bad, knowing that the next topic of conversation would bring her right back down. Coughing, he inquired, "So, how are _you_ doing? How are the nightmares?" As he questioned her, Makoto watched him pull out a notebook that she would recognize anywhere―the Dream Book. Or, well, _she_ called it the Dream Book. He probably called it something else.

"They're the same as usual but...I haven't had one since Sunday, which is good right?" she answered, although it sounded more like a question.

Taka clapped his hands together as his face lit up. "Today's Tuesday...so that's progress!"

She tried smiling but she knew it seemed more of a grimace than anything. "Yay?"

He narrowed his eyes and pointed the butt-end of his pen at her. "I've known you for four years and I've finally come to the decision that you're _far_ too cynical."

At this, she simply shrugged her shoulders. "Okay."

He only scoffed before continuing, returning to the topic at hand. "Can you describe your nightmare to me to the best of your abilities?"

She readjusted herself in her seat as she began recalling her dream. "It started off the same, with me being alone at home. It was dark and I...opened my door? No, it just opened up. I walked into the room and immediately, I got this feeling that something was watching me." She involuntarily shuddered as she remembered the red eyes that watched her. "And then...a-and then I saw Nii-chan and Kushina-neesan in the living room, and there was so much blood and I screamed a-and―"

"Calm down, Makoto." His voice pulled her out of the nightmare. She focused her eyes on him and saw him motioning his chest.

In, hold, out. In, hold, out.

She timed her breathing to match his―a rhythm they had practiced, though it was always easier to achieve when there was someone else to use as a reference―before nodding her head. "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to do that," she managed to say after a few silent minutes that were filled with their tandem breathing.

Taka shook his head and gave her one of his reassuring smiles. "It's alright. You practiced your breathing, just like we talked about."

She nodded her head. "Yeah, it really helps, especially when Nii-chan or Kushina-neesan isn't here." Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. "Maybe that he's back now, I'm not having the nightmares."

"That could be a thought. It seems that most of your dreams occur around those you care for, as we've seen with your friend, Obito, or your brother's teacher, Jiraiya-sama."

At the mention of the latter's name, she threw her head to the side. "Tsk, he doesn't deserve to be called that. You should call him Ero-Sennin since you can't call him Ero-Sensei like I do." She whirled back and threw her hands as wide as she could for exaggeration. "I mean, the last time I saw him he was dragging me around bars to hit on women for his freaking research!" She pointed to herself as she leaned forward. "I was _seven!_ "

"M-Maa, I'm sure he didn't-"

"I _ruined_ his night, that's for sure."

Taka could only watch as the various emotions appeared on Makoto's face as she recalled whatever had occurred between herself and Jiraiya that night, and the moment she smirked, Taka felt a drop of sweat drip down his back.

This girl was undoubtedly one of the scariest children he's ever dealt with.

"W-Well." He looked at the night and shut the book. "I think it's time we end our session here today."

"R-Really?" She looked...disappointed? Wait, did she still want to talk?

...That would be a first.

"Would you rather we talk for a little longer then?"

Makoto furiously nodded her head. "I know I usually don't stay for long but I'm just…I'm actually really nervous."

"For…?"

"Graduation. It's tomorrow and I'm scared that I won't pass."

He folded his hands on top of his desk. "Makoto-chan, you'll definitely be fine. You're one of the top in the class, aren't you?" He sees her grades whenever there was a report, they were _great_.

"Yeah but even if I do pass, I'm nervous that I won't be on a team with Obito. He's my _only_ friend," her voice ended quietly. Immediately, Taka saw the raw fear in her eyes at the thought of that exact thing happening. Not only was she worried about that, she was also worried about her future teammates. She had mentioned this to him before, of her trouble with making friends. He never could understand exactly why she struggled, not when he saw the way she interacted with him and the various staff in the building. Not to mention, Minato and Kushina had explained how exactly outgoing she truly was. Even with knowing and talking to her for the past four years, he still couldn't figure out the answer to this.

"You're a wonderful girl and a great friend, so even if you aren't paired with Obito-kun, I'm sure that you will make friends with whoever your teammates are," he tried reassuring. It seemed he had succeeded with the smile that suddenly adorned her face.

"R-Really?" She sounded hopeful. "You think I can?"

He returned her smile before getting up. Moving towards her, he kneeled down until they could see without any difference. "I believe in you, Makoto, so go show the world who you truly are." He placed his hands on her shoulders and squeezed.

She stayed frozen in this position for a second before suddenly shooting forward and throwing her arms around his neck, completely throwing the Yamanaka off. "Omph!" he grunted involuntarily.

"Thank you so much Taka-Sensei, I don't know what I'd do without you," she muttered into his shoulder.

Although still stunned by this turn of events, he returned her embrace and gently patted her back. "Thank _you_ , Makoto."

They remained like that for a few more seconds before pulling apart and after they said their goodbyes, Makoto was skipping through roads that would eventually lead her to the marketplace. Remembering what she had suggested to Taka-sensei, she began thinking. What should she make for Minato? Should she make chocolate chips or the cookies that Kushina always made―cheese cookies?

Such hard questions for so little time.

The moment she reached the store that she usually bought most of her baking supplies, Makoto had made a decision. She would make chocolate chip cookies. She decided on that because it was totally not because they were easier― _nope_ , definitely not the reason why.

As she retrieved the various ingredients required for the delicious delicacy, her mind wandered to tomorrow. She knew her brother would be receiving a team - because he had informed her of this news, along with Kakashi for some reason - but he refused to tell her who was on it. She was praying to any gods that she and Obito would be together, but somewhere deep, _deep,_ down, she felt that this arrangement would be impossible. She didn't know how but she was dead _sure_ that they wouldn't be placed on a team together.

Plus, the way her brother looked at her guiltily this morning when she mentioned her hope to be paired with Obito only confirmed her doubts.

* * *

 **Graduation**

* * *

Makoto shuffled nervously by the entrance, holding onto her newly received hitai-ite. She couldn't help but grip it as hard as she could, her blood heavy with nervousness.

What would she do if Obito failed? Should she say that she wasn't ready and return to the Academy with him for a year? Would she help him find some way to graduate? Oh, she should really stop thinking like this. It was making her sweat even more _._

 _Happy thoughts,_ she thought to herself. He should be coming out soon―

The door suddenly slammed open and slowly, but surely, Obito came walking out of the room. At the look on his face, her heart fell as she made way to her best friend.

He failed―

"I passed!" Obito held up his brand new hitai-ite while throwing her a smile and a thumbs up. "Uchiha Obito is now a genin!"

"Oh thank god―I thought you weren't going to pass," she grumbled as she hugged him.

He grabbed his heart with shock as soon as he threw her off of him. "Thanks for believing in me."

"You don't get to play the _I'm angry at you_ card!" She shouted out as she followed him down the hall. "You would've been late if it weren't for Rin-chan telling me that you _might_ be! It's graduation―the one day you _can't_ be late for!"

He ignored everything she was complaining about and asked the only thing that seemed to catch his ear. "Where did you even meet Rin-chan?"

At this, Minato shrugged her shoulders. "We kinda ran into each other when I was walking to school." She suddenly shook her head, "T-That's not the point. We were talking about you always being late and oh, don't even get me started on this morning! You were crying about how you couldn't do a proper bunshin and kept saying that you were gonna fail!"

Whirling around, he tied the hitai-ite around his forehead. "But I did, so conversation over! I'm so proud of us." Even Makoto couldn't help but smile at the excitement he was oozing. "So who do ya think we're gonna get grouped with?"

"...We?"

Obito continued walking but turned his head to look at her, his hands resting behind his head. "Well, the teachers are gonna group us together, don't cha think so?"

"...I hope so." As they walked to the classroom door together, Makoto couldn't help but feel scared for them as they sat down in the seats.

As the last of the students trickled into the classroom, their teacher finally stormed in with a sheet of paper. It was the sheet that would decide their teams, their future. The chatter in the room quickly stopped as Yukimura-sensei hit his desk. "Alright, settle down, you brats!"

"We're gonna miss ya, sensei!"

Ignoring the comment that came from somewhere behind the room, he held up the paper. "It's been an honor, teaching you guys for the past four years. There were some of ya that made me want to kick the living lights out of you but...it's been good."

"Hurry up and tell us our teams!" Makoto giggled as she heard fellow classmate Sarutobi Asuma egg the teacher on.

"Brats…" Yukimura-sensei grumbled. "But alright! Team one―Keisuke Hiro, Hashimoto Aiba, and Uchiha Yuki; your teacher is Uchiha Gorou. Team two…"

Makoto couldn't help but nod slightly off as the names were called. She wasn't able to sleep that well the night before, as she was constantly thinking of what ifs―what if they were separated or what if she failed the test? She passed but now she was worried―

"Team Seven with Namikaze Minato. You guys are a special case so there are only two students: Nohara Rin and Uchiha Obito." As if she hadn't been nodding off, her head flew up to meet Obito's. Her heart fell as her fear was confirmed.

They weren't on a team together.

But as she saw the complete...joy on her friends face at the mention of Rin being on his team, it made her realize that it wasn't all _that_ bad. She would still see him, as his teacher was her brother, so she was...happy for him, in her own way. "Obito, I'm glad―"

"Wait, what about Makoto?" he suddenly shouted out, ignoring her. Her eyes widened as she gasped at what he suddenly asked Yukimura-sensei.

"O-Obito!" she stuttered, trying to hide behind her arms from the various stares she was receiving. "Of course I'm not gonna be on the same team as my _brother_ ―"

"Namikaze Makoto, Inuzuka Shou, and Takahata Masaki with Sakurai Tsuyoshi as Team Eight." The moment she heard the names of her fellow teammates, Obito was forgotten. She quickly whirled around and searched for the two of the names in the classroom and just like she had guessed― _because she just had a feeling_ ―the two were sitting next to each other, seemingly acquainted with one another already, and were staring at her with eyes that only unnerved her.

"This _sucks_!" Obito kicked the empty chair in front of him as he crossed his arms over his chest. "We should've been together!"

Makoto scratched the back of her neck as she laid her head back down. "As if they'd pair me up with my brother―he's a relative. No matter how desperate, they wouldn't allow that kind of thing to happen." But before he could complain further, Makoto pointed to Rin, who was sitting up front. "But hey, you were partnered up with _Rin_ out of all people, that's like your dream come true, remember?"

He looked at her before muttering a quiet, "That's true…" But the moment he ended his thought, it seemed another replaced it. "But wait, why is it only me and Rin? The usual team is three membered―"

Makoto snorted as she realized what was occurring. Oh, Obito wasn't going to like the news _at all_. "Well...um, not to burst your bubble, but Kakashi's probably that third member."

The moment their eyes met, Makoto couldn't help but fear slightly for her life.

" _...What?_ "

She couldn't help but flinch at his tone. "I never mentioned it?" She swore she had told Obito about _that_ arrangement...it happened the moment Kakashi had graduated from the Academy.

Hell, the boy was a chunin now!

"No, you _didn't_."

"W-Well...Kakashi's been apprenticed under Minato for the past three years―" She hid her head underneath her arms as she said this―

" _What?_ " he nearly screamed out.

She kept her forehead against the desk but held up her hands in surrender. "It's the truth!"

Slowly looking up at his silence, Makoto saw his face shift from anger to confusion, only to settle into disappointment. "...Crap." She didn't say anything but sympathetically patted his shoulder a second after he laid his head on the desk in shock. "I'm totally _ruined_ , Rin-chan will _never_ like me now…" he sobbed into his sleeve, the shirt muffling his voice.

"M-Maa, becoming strong might change her mind?"

Before they could continue their conversation, Yukimura-sensei shouted out, "Good luck! Your teachers will be here shortly!" And with that, he left the classroom.

Makoto simply blinked at the empty space that her teacher had occupied before turning back to Obito once more. "Wait, so we have to stay here until our sensei comes?"

The chatter in the room escalated and she could barely hear Obito say, "I guess?"

Firmly nodding her head, Makoto made up her mind. Tugging on Obito's sleeve to catch his attention, she shouted into his ear, "Wake me up before you leave if my sensei doesn't come first, okay?"

"I will!"

And as she quickly fell asleep, she sure as hell didn't dream of cotton candy and bunnies.

To her, it felt so much shorter than an hour but she slowly woke up from the shaking she was getting on her shoulder. "Psst, Makoto, wake up."

"Huh?" She looked around blearily before returning to Obito. He simply pointed to the door and when she looked, she noticed the familiar face staring at her. "Hi Nii-chan!" she shouted out with a wave. He gave her a thumbs up when he saw the hitai-it's tied around her forehead.

"I'm looking for Uchiha Obito and...Nohara Rin?" Obito shot up with his hand in the air while Rin followed suit but a little slower and...gentler. "We're meeting on the roof so don't be too late," he instructed firmly. Obito and Rin both let out a firm, _hai_ , and began gathering their belongs. Before he left, Minato quickly waved goodbye to Makoto and wished her good luck on her team assignment. Then, as quickly as he came, he disappeared back to wherever he came from.

"Good luck!"

"Bye Makoto!" He began running down the steps that led to the door. "Oh, I'll see ya tomorrow!"

"Okay!" Doing the same thing she did to Minato, she waved goodbye to her friend and watched as Rin caught up to Obito.

Now alone, Makoto began thinking. Who was Sakurai Tsuyoshi? Hmm...she hoped he wasn't too weird; she's had enough interaction with weird people in her life.

Starting to get bored, she began watching as Jounin teachers trickled in and out with their new students, and before she realized, she had fallen back asleep.

She didn't dream and for the second time today, she was once again shaken awake. "Hey, you're Namikaze Makoto-chan, right?"

Slowly lifting her head, Makoto looked to the source of the voice and her blue eyes met with jade colored ones that were staring back at her. "I'm um...yeah." She shook her head, clearing her mind of sleep, before sitting up a little straighter. "Are you...um, Inuzuka Shou-kun?" she asked in return, noticing the red fang marks on his face.

The Inuzuka boy smiled at her, nodding his head. "Konnichiwa. I think that's our teacher," he informed her, pointing at the man in the front of the classroom.

Makoto looked at where he was pointing and she had a sudden intense want to hide under the desk. A gasp left her mouth as she looked at who her teacher was. "H-Him?" she whispered as quietly as she could.

Oh wow, he was _terrifying._ With a scar that went down the side of his entire face, he was nearly as tall as Jiraiya, maybe even _taller._

But before Shou could respond to her question, their teacher's face whirled towards them. With his piercing red eyes, he narrowed them and just…stared for a few seconds, unnerving them _and_ the entire class. Then, without saying a word, he simply beckoned them with a motion of his head before walking out of the classroom.

The moment he disappeared, Makoto let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. "...Do you think he likes us?" she tried asking. Shou could only respond with a gulp before being interrupted by a third voice behind them.

"That's our cue!" They both sighed and as Makoto stood up, she nearly fell back into her seat by the unexpected weight on her foot.

"What the―"

"Kaimaru, get out of there!" The impact of meeting their teacher forgotten, Shou quickly grabbed something from underneath the desk, pulling out a...dog? "You can't just _do_ that!" Oh, wait, duh, the boy was an Inuzuka, of course he had a ninken with him.

Makoto simply observed the two with slow blinking―a medium sized dog was squirming in Shou's arms as he tried...disciplining ninken. She wasn't sure about that part because it seemed like he was failing from the tail wagging and drooling Kaimaru was doing.

Seeing that they were getting nowhere, she held up her hands. "A-Ah, Inuzuka-kun, I think we should go before Sakurai-sensei get's mad." She was scared out of her wits as it was and she didn't even know how the man sounded!

Shou quickly agreed before pushing both her and their third teammate, Takahata Masaki, down the stairs, his ninken barking at them from the front. "You're right, let's hurry!" The trio followed the dog out of the classroom and out of the academy building, but their teacher was nowhere in sight.

"Where even is he?" she heard Masaki mutter, looking around like they were.

Makoto simply shrugged her shoulders, also looking around. She opened her mouth to respond when she felt someone appear from behind them. She moved to turn around when but...she couldn't move her body. Panic was quick to settle in and from the corner of her eye, she saw that her fellow teammates were also in the same predicament as she was. "W-What?" At least she was able to move her mouth. "Inuzuka-kun, can you―"

* * *

Makoto's eyes flew open as she gasped for breath.

"What the―"

She whirled around and the first thing she noticed was the darkness. Gulping, she tried remembering...she couldn't remember how she got here. The last thing she recalled was...the academy, the _courtyard_.

"Inuzuka-kun, Takahata-kun, are you there?"

There was no response.

Everything was pitch black and as she blindly felt around, she was able to determine she was in some...sort of box. She tried pounding on the walls that surrounded her but they didn't give away nor was there a pounding in return, confirming what she had thought.

She was trapped, alone.

Because it was pitch black, she did something that Kushina-neesan taught her a few months ago. She concentrated her chakra into her left hand carefully so she didn't damage anything and waited for the chakra to light up her cramped box. It glowed blue _and_ just her luck, as she looked around, it was a wooden box.

Well, now what was she supposed to do? Makoto ran her fingernails over every single space she could and nearly screamed in frustration. A few minutes of silence passed, leaving her to stew in her own thoughts, until she impulsively screeched out, "What the hell am I supposed _to do?!_ "

She was in a stump. There was nothing she could see, no crack in the wood or a secret hatch that she could open to let her out with. Even all the weapons that she had been carrying, which wasn't that much to begin with, were mysteriously gone from her weapons pouch.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Makoto closed her eyes. Clearly, this was some sort of test. Sakurai-sensei was probably watching somewhere with his unnerving red eyes, seeing how she and the rest of her teammates would react to this situation.

"You can do this…" She just needed to believe. If she could survive a single training session with her oni of a brother―because Nii-chan was a _sadist_ when he was teaching―she could survive a single test.

Laying down onto her back, she placed the bottoms of her feet above her. Maybe if she pushed hard enough the box would give away? She experimented with this idea in several areas, although not with her full strength, but decided against it.

No, it couldn't be that easy.

Forgetting about keeping her chakra in her hand, the box slowly crept back into darkness. What else could she do?

After stewing in her own thoughts, Makoto suddenly realized something. There was the sensing left! Why hasn't she thought of that earlier? If she could sense her teammates _and_ find out if the box was kept together by some jutsu, maybe she'd be able to escape.

The only other person who knew that she had this ability was Ero-sensei and her brother―and _that_ was only by mistake. They had been waiting together in the apartment when she felt Minato running towards the house. She had been excited because he had been gone for the longest time and shouted out, " _Nii-chan's coming home!_ " She didn't understand at the time why Jiraiya had given her such a weird look but she found out a year later that it for a seven-year-old, sensing someone―albeit, this certain someone also had large chakra reserves―from that distance was quite a feat. In fact, it was a feat for a child her age that belonged to someone who had the makings of a chakra sensor if they chose to pursue a career as one. She even found out that her brother was, in fact, a sensor of a sort.

Before she could even continue, however, the realization hit her. How the hell was she supposed to sense for something when she barely knew how to use the ability? "Ugh." Boy, did she regret not asking her brother for help.

Her brother...Minato was always meditating, maybe this helped with sensing. Besides, it wasn't like she had a better plan.

By sitting up―because the box was surprisingly big―and by clearing her mind, Makoto was able to somewhat concentrate. Placing both hands on the floor, she closed her eyes and relaxed her body, allowing herself to just... _feel._ She allowed for her mind to go blank and at the same time, spread out from where she sat. By the time she was getting some sort of pin prick feeling far off in the distance, sweat was dripping off of her forehead, and it wasn't just from the heat. She was practically heaving as she struggled to maintain her concentration and connection to the small, minuscule dots. Maybe she could even...sense Sakurai-sensei, somehow―oh, no way in hell was she going to be able to do that. Her forehead still scrunched up, almost as if she was in pain, she opened her eyes and let go of whatever control she had. Her body was at its limit and she knew this from the feeling of wanting to vomit and passing out at the same time.

"Wow, that was _bad,_ " she groaned out, laying her head on the side of the box. She never wanted to experience this again.

Makoto took a break from...well, everything, for a few minutes. Screw the test, if she didn't get her breathing and her mind under control, there would be _no_ test for her. After giving herself minutes of blissful calm, she began to think once more. She barely had a quarter of her chakra left, after using it on her test earlier _and_ from simply trying to sense her teammates. Obviously, the two other signatures she felt were her teammates, but shouldn't there have been a third one? Shouldn't Shou's ninken, Kaimaru, have a chakra signature too?

Hmm...maybe animals were different?

Pushing that thought to the back of her mind, Makoto now began thinking about a plan. That sensing only managed to do a whole bucketful of _nothing_ and she didn't want to spare her chakra anymore. Maybe she should _try_ breaking the box from sheer strength, after all. It wasn't the worst plan she ever came up with. At the thought of her doing exactly that, however, caused her to snort despite the situation she was in.

...Pfft, as _if._ She could barely hold two textbooks at once without wanting to cry.

What else could she even do? Simply staring at the dark blankness that was her box, Makoto sorted through several scenarios in her mind. Maybe she could...nope, that wouldn't work. Maybe…? Nah, she didn't have enough chakra to waste.

Something was nagging at her though, she just didn't know _what_. Something about her chakra...why was she getting caught on the idea of chakra―

" _That's it!_ " Makoto suddenly shouted out to no one in particular. When she had been sensing for her teammates, there was a small "dot" of chakra from behind her. She didn't pay any attention to it because her only thought had been Shou and Masaki, but it now made so much more sense. The box was a genjutsu―it had to be! Placing her hand on the box, she muttered out a quiet, " _kai_ ," and disrupted the chakra that covered the box.

She didn't see anything change so she lit the box up and nearly cried from happiness. There was a latch of some sort above her that wasn't there before. Her hands fumbled a few times before she was able to slide the metal out but the moment she lifted the hatch, she shouted out and screamed, "I'm free!"

She breathed in the fresh air before turning to the last location she sensed her two teammates. "Yosh, you can do this Makoto," she muttered a quick pep talk as she jumped down. Double checking her chakra, she began running towards the nearest chakra signature she saw.

It didn't take too long and by the time Makoto reached it, she saw Masaki crawling out of the box, looking quite red. "Takahata-kun?" she called out.

The boy's face whirled towards her and for a second he simply blinked at her. "I guess you figured it out?"

"That it was a genjutsu?" Makoto extended a hand to him.

He nodded after taking her hand. "Do you think Shou figured it out?"

"Let's hope so. I know where he is so come on, let's hurry."

The two began running and when they reached the clearing that held their last teammate, they both saw that the box was still unopened. Makoto didn't hesitate and rushed forward, quickly breaking the genjutsu.

"Inuzuka-kun, you have to unlock the box from the inside!"

"What?" came the muffled reply.

Masaki held his hands over his mouth and shouted out, "There's a latch at the top! Unlock it!"

They heard some sort of rustling, followed by the top of the box opening. Shou quickly jumped out and ignoring his teammates, he called out, "Kaimaru, where are you?"

Makoto and Masaki confusingly looked at each other. "Kaimaru?" she mouthed.

Masaki shrugged his shoulder before asking, "Shou, what are ya talkin' about?"

Shou had tears streaming down his face, clearly in distress. "I-I woke up and he wasn't there. I can't smell him a-and I don't know what to do―"

"Well, first thing first." Makoto placed her hands on Shou's shoulders to stop him. "You need to calm down."

He threw her hands off of him and growled out, "I can't just _calm_ down, Namikaze! He's my partner, we haven't been separated like this since I got him―"

"She's right, you need to calm down." Masaki stood in between the two. "You actin' like this ain't gonna help with our situation. If you wanna find your ninken, we gotta work together."

The three remained silent, the air tense with both worry and anger. Makoto, still slightly surprised at how angry Shou was, shuffled a little closer to Masaki before breaking the awkward silence, "This is obviously a test so...Sakurai-sensei is definitely watching us somewhere. He's gonna see us right now and say that we aren't fit to be a team and if...and if he says that, we won't be able to pass."

The two boys quickly turned to her, confused. "What do you mean?" Masaki asked.

Makoto, unnerved by their stares, looked down and began digging in the dirt with her sandals. "I-I mean...well, my brother got a team this year and he said that he's doing a test with them, and if they fail horribly, there's a chance he might send the team back to the academy for another year. He said that all teams were doing a test but what the test exactly is was up to the teacher."

"...Shit," he responded in a flat tone.

"But it's okay." Makoto suddenly squared her shoulders, hiding her nervousness. "We'll find Kaimaru, Inuzuka-kun, so don't worry."

"I...I'm sorry for acting out."

"Nah, it's okay. You're just worried."

"Hey, also?" Shou smiled, showing off his sharp canines. "You can call me Shou, I don't like being called Inuzuka-kun because it's just...weird, especially when there's a lot of us."

"A-Are you sure?"

He nodded his head before pointing to Masaki. "It's the same with him."

"I'm from a civilian clan so while there's not as many of us as the Uchiha or the Hyuuga's, there's enough to where it's weird."

"A-Ah...okay then, um...Masaki and Shou?"

"Alright, now that we got that out of the way, we need a plan." Masaki tapped his foot against the dirt. "Obviously, Sakurai-sensei ain't that far away."

Shou tapped his nose before grinning, "I can see if I can find some sort of scent on Kaimaru or Sakurai-sensei. We might be able to track them if I find one." They both followed Shou as sounds of him sniffling were heard as they circled the entire area. They stayed like that for a while until Shou punched a tree angrily, his lips in a tight line. "I can't find anything."

"So now what are we supposed to do? We can't just sit here and twiddle our thumbs and sit on our asses, doing nothin'."

"Um...I might be able to sense them." Even though she _really_ didn't want to do that', she guessed it wouldn't hurt to suggest it. "I mean, that's how I found you and Masaki-kun."

The two didn't spare a second as they rushed towards her. Shou shook her shoulders while Masaki narrowed his eyes. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?" the two demanded.

"I thought you'd be able to find something!"

"I clearly didn't and I don't know how to sense! C'mon, hurry up! We don't have time to spare!"

"Alright, _alright_ , let go of me." She shrugged off Shou's hands and kneeled down, placing the palms of her hands against the dirt.

Makoto was apprehensive about continuing with this plan, but just by the looks she was getting from her teammates, she knew she couldn't really say no. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down.

 _Deep breaths, you can do this_ , she thought to herself. She cleared her mind and spread her chakra out around her, as thin as she could to cover as much distance. She grunted from a sudden pain in her head.

"Makoto, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

No, she _wasn't_. She had the overwhelming feeling of wanting to pass out again.

"Hey, if it's too hard―"

"I got it!" Her eyes flew open as she jumped up, feeling accomplished. "I got his―oh no, I'm going to puke."

"Whoa, calm _down_ ―" Shou held out his arms as she stood unsteadily on her feet― "You look ready to pass out."

Blinking furiously to stave off her weariness, she forced down the bile that worked its way to her throat. "I _feel_ like passing out."

Holding up a hand, she stayed silent for a few seconds before nodding her head. "I think I'm good. Anyways, I think I got Kaimaru's signature! It's not far at all."

"Really?"

"Yup," Makoto began running while she pulled on her teammates' hands. "Let's go!"

She nearly missed the dot but she knew that it was Kaimaru―or Sensei―but either way, she knew that they'd be together. She had a feeling that Sensei was probably concealing his chakra because of course, he wouldn't make things easy.

They reached the clearing that Kaimaru was at and when Makoto saw what was happening, the first words out of her mouth were, "What the hell?"

"Ah, Makoto, Shou, Masaki, it took you guys quite a while to get here," Sakurai-sensei said nonchalantly. He was rubbing Kaimaru's stomach, the dog wagging its tail and with his tongue hanging out. "But it seems that you were able to work together."

Sakurai Tsuyoshi straightened his spine, fulling intending to unnerve his students. The former ANBU stood at a whopping 195 centimeters, towering over even the largest in Konoha. With the scar he received during the last war and his red eyes, he knew full well that he scared many people he worked with.

It would be interesting to see how his students would react to him.

"You three, come here." Even his voice, with how deep it was, seemed to unnerve the kids. "This is Training Field Twelve. Remember it because this is where we'll be meeting tomorrow at 0800. Don't be late."

The one on the right, Takahata Masaki, raised his hand after he finished. "Um...Sensei?"

"Yes?"

He looked at the other two before asking, "So we passed?"

"Yes, you did."

"Yay?" the only girl on the team said. "Does that mean we can go home?"

"Yes, you can."

"Alright, well, I've had a long _long_ day so I'm gonna leave. Bye!" Shou called out for his ninken before running off, leaving them behind. The remaining two seemed to have nothing to say and simply bowed at Sakurai before leaving.

As he watched his remaining students leave, he chuckled. This team...this was going to be interesting. He had an Inuzuka with anger and abandonment issues, a civilian that didn't have the support of his clan for his decision to become a shinobi, and an untrained sensor who was being placed on the same level her prodigious brother was when he was her age.

Team Eight...it was going to be interesting, to say the least.

* * *

 **Graduation**

* * *

Makoto slammed her hand on the table. " _What?!_ "

Her brother swallowed his food before nodding his head. "Yeah, I'm having my team do their test tomorrow, like most of the teachers this year."

"That's not fair, not at _all!_ " she complained. Her body ached, she had a headache, and she was about ready to collapse. "Sakurai-sensei made us do our test today! He even knocked us out!"

"Eh, that sounds like him-ttebane."

She shot the Uzumaki a glare. "You're not helping."

"Well...at least you got it over with?" Minato tried suggesting. "You said you passed."

Makoto slowly nodded her head before suddenly slamming her forehead against the table. "I feel really gross though."

"Your body's fatigued-ttebane. You used your chakra in ways you haven't before so of course, you're gonna feel like crap."

A strange look passed over her brother's face before he pointed his fork at Makoto. "What _did_ you do today? I don't recall any of us teaching you anything that would make you strain your chakra like this."

"... _Well_ ," Makoto sheepishly said, "I kinda tried sensing?"

The two adults groaned. "You _kinda_ were stupid. You're supposed to train that _properly_ before you even try doing it!" her brother scolded. "You have to make sure that you're not wasting unnecessary chakra and then you have to be able to properly sense if it's a signature or if it's a seal of some sort, and that takes _years_ to be able to do that properly―"

"I kinda just...followed the dots," she suddenly interrupted, hoping it would help her case somehow.

At this, Kushina snorted while Minato gawked at her with his mouth hanging open. "Y-You what?"

Makoto shrugged her shoulders, moving her head to the side. "They were super tiny dots and they were easily two hundred meters away. Oh!" She quickly remembered something and slammed her hand on the table, continuing, "That's also how I sensed the genjutsu on the box. Tiny little dots."

"Well, Minato-kun, your sister might be even a better sensor than you-ttebane. I don't remember you being able to do _this_ much without training." Kushina fist bumped Makoto. "Look at you-ttebane!"

"I still did something wrong with the sensing though, right?"

Minato finally finished with his gawking, nodded his head. "I'm gonna talk to Tsuyoshi-san about this. There's nothing on your file about sensing so he might not be prepared―"

At this suggestion, his sister shook her hands, stopping her brother in his tracks. " _Or_ , I can just tell sensei tomorrow. We have training anyway."

"I don't know―"

"You're worrying too much, Nii-chan."

"I'm your brother, of course I'm going to worry."

Makoto didn't have anything to respond to this so she simply went back to eating. "I'm just gonna tell sensei tomorrow."

He looked as if he wanted to say more but after a painful kick from his girlfriend, he decided against it and stood down. "I'm going to help you with your sensing though―"

"What about your team? You gotta work with them first, Nii-chan." Then, without waiting for a response from her brother, Makoto turned to Kushina and asked, "You're pretty good with sensing, right?"

"I'm nothing compared to your brother but...yeah, I'm pretty good at it-ttebane."

"Okay! See, problem solved Nii-chan! I'll just ask Kushina-neesan for help."

"B-But―"

"Well, I'm tired so I'm gonna go to bed now. Thanks for dinner!" Makoto stood up, cleaned her seat, and kissed her brother on his cheek. "'Night!"

She left Minato sitting at the table, dumbfounded at what just occurred, while Kushina continued eating with amusement. "That girl has you wrapped around her little finger-ttebane."

Her boyfriend simply glared at her before grumbling, " _No,_ she doesn't."

Kushina's eyebrows rose as she snorted once more. " _Sure._ "

And that was how this _very_ interesting day ended.

* * *

 **Graduation - End**

* * *

 **A/N:** _Hey! This chapter turned out a little late but I hope I made it up with how much I wrote. I don't think I've written this much for a chapter in a while and phew, it feels kinda...good. Anyways, onto what happened. I know that in Naruto, they pass the Academy test and then they find out who their teams are the next day, but I felt like doing it like this was...right. In my mind, Konoha doesn't have even a day to spare something as simple as this, as they need soldiers. Although they're genin, they're gonna have to go into the war soon._

 _Also, I got rid of all the "present day" parts of the earlier chapters. They were slightly...awkward and I think they didn't fit in with what I have planned._

 _Other than that, please review! I love reading what you guys think of my story so far and it just makes me super giddy lmao xD_

 _See ya in the next chapter!_


	7. Chapter 7

_**Unedited; Original post: 08.21.17**_

* * *

 _Summary_ : From Heaven above and Hell below, she is the Handmaiden of Death, killing without mercy. Death is her only companion in life; and as she dreams of him, she drowns in tidal waves of blood. Who is she? She is Namikaze Makoto; this is her story.

* * *

" **Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much."**

Helen Keller

* * *

Disclaimer: _I don't own Naruto, only any original characters._

* * *

 **Beta:** ShootingLightStar

* * *

 **Safe and Sound** _  
_ _ **07:**_ _Camaraderie_

Masaki and Shou simply watched as their only female teammate walk over to then, Kaimaru quickly following behind her in curiosity. "Um...Makoto?"

"...Yes?"

"What's with the boxes?"

Grunting from the weight, Makoto quickly―but carefully―placed the obento boxes onto the ground, a bottle of water escaping from the plastic bag in her arms in the process. Kaimaru chased after it, leaving the three alone. "My brother's girlfriend, Uzumaki Kushina, made this and it's a gift? At least, that's what she said." She scratched her head while thinking. "Actually, I'm pretty sure she just made too much food. She kinda...cooks, when she's excited."

Excited was an understatement. When Makoto trudged into the kitchen this morning, not only had Kushina made four large―and Makoto meant _large_ ―boxes of lunch for her team, but the Uzumaki had made four for Minato's team as well. That also didn't include the box that was full of food for Kaimaru―how Kushina found out that Shou was an Inuzuka with a ninken, Makoto had no idea.

At this point though, she was used to the Uzumaki's eccentric personality and barely batted an eyelash at the strange antics she witnessed on a daily basis.

Masaki slowly nodded his head, his eyes never moving away from the boxes. "So there's enough for us all?"

"I mean, probably." She pulled out the box for Kaimaru and handed it to Shou. "It's for your ninken," she said with a shy smile. She hoped her teammates wouldn't be weirded out by the lunch because that was the one thing Makoto didn't want to do.

She placed the bag of water bottles down but not before taking two out and throwing it to her teammates. "Here's some water."

"Thanks."

"So where's Sensei?"

Shou took a long drink and burped before answering, "'Dunno. We're all kinda early so―"

"It's always good to be early."

Makoto screamed as she jumped behind Masaki at the sudden voice, the boy nearly doing the same. Shou screamed a pitch as high as she did, grabbing onto his teammates as if they would protect him. "S-Sensei?!" they all shouted out, practically holding onto each other, Makoto and Shou holding onto Masaki, who stood in the middle. Kaimaru bounded over with a split water bottle in his mouth, his tail wagging excitedly.

It was a picture worthy moment and while Sakurai didn't laugh, he felt a corner of his mouth curve up involuntarily. "Good morning," he said, amused.

Taking a shaky breath, Makoto detached herself from her teammates and bowed her head, greeting Sakurai with a quiet, "Good morning."

"Now that we're all here, let's begin with...introductions." He read that it was good, that it helped bring a sense of kinship to a team.

"Introductions?"

"Yes, you heard me." The three stood straighter as their teacher stared down at his three students. "I'll start." Taking a step back, his spine stood ramrod straight as his hands rested together behind his back. "My name is Sakurai Tsuyoshi and you are to refer to me as Sakurai-sensei. I am a Jounin and have been for quite some time and I am a survivor of the Second Shinobi War - yes, Inuzuka, that's how I got my scar, so put your hand down." The boy guilty put his hand away as he continued. "I don't have any favorite foods and I don't see a reason why I should tell you about my hobbies. I don't have a family, I'm the last of mine."

They all remained silent, the three of them unsure of what to say afterwards. "U-Um, I'll start," Makoto uneasily announced after an awkward few seconds had passed. "My name is Namikaze Makoto and um...my best friend is Uchiha Obito. I have an older brother who also got a team of his own this year. My favorite food is strawberry daifuku and Kushina's tamagoyaki. Um...my goal is to become strong enough to protect my loved ones." She sheepishly smiled as she looked at Masaki and Shou. "I a-also hope that we all can get along."

Masaki smiled at her while Shou gave her a thumbs up. "Yosh, it's my turn!" Shou shouted. "My name's Inuzuka Shou and my favorite thing to do is to train with Kaimaru," he said, which was accompanied by a bark from his ninken. "My goal is to become one of the strongest shinobi in Konoha and my favorite food is a good, medium rare steak."

"I guess it's my turn now." Coughing, Masaki began. "My name's Takahata Masaki and my hobbies are reading and training. Uh, I come from a pretty big civilian clan but that ain't really that important. My goal is to become a Jounin and one day have a team of my own."

At this, Sakurai suddenly raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Masaki shrugged his shoulders. "I think it's kinda cool to teach other people."

"Hmm...alright. Now that we got introductions out of the way, let's start with today's training."

"I'm ready sensei, bring it on!"

Makoto snickered while Masaki sighed at what Shou had just said. "I hope you're ready because today, you'll be fighting me." The moment these words left his mouth, the reactions from his students all varied. There was a depressed sigh that came out of Makoto's mouth that reminded him greatly of the ANBU trainees he previously worked with, an excited shout from Shou followed by his ninken's howl, and a uninterested sigh from Masaki. It was...interesting, to say the least, seeing the various reactions. He guessed, in a way, that it represented each of their personalities.

"We'll begin…" He looked each of them deeply in the eyes before smirking. "Now!" Makoto, along with her teammates, immediately scattered around the training field, disappearing before his eyes. Although he was able to sense each of them in their hiding positions, he remained standing where he was.

He would wait for the first move to be made.

As he waited, Makoto narrowed her eyes as she stared at her sensei. She needed a plan― _they_ needed a plan. It would do them no good to go charging head first towards Sakurai-sensei, alone, it would be stupid and _suicide_ ―

"I'm not afraid of you sensei, neither of us are!"

Makoto deadpanned as she fell over, losing her footing at the shock of the sheer _stupidity_ of her over-enthusiastic teammate. _You have got to be kidding,_ Makoto thought to herself as regained her balance.

Apparently, she stood corrected―there _was_ someone stupid enough to go headfirst like that.

Well, there went her plan. Now she needed a new one.

...Thanks a lot, Shou.

" _Psst._ " Whirling around, she saw Masaki motioning for her to come over. Taking one last look at Shou and Kaimaru, she followed after her teammate's back as they trekked deeper into the forest. "We need to use this distraction to our advantage," he quietly said as they stopped.

Furrowing her brow, Makoto bit her bottom lip in thought. "What could we even do?" she asked. They were quite far away from the open field but it was still close enough to where the duo could see everything that was occurring.

"Attack sensei from all sides." Masaki grinned as he drew out positions in the dirt. "You can come in from behind as sensei's occupied with Shou. As you do that, I can come in from here."

"The side?" She nodded her head in agreement. "That's a good idea―" There was a loud crash from behind them, causing the two to flinch before staring at their teacher, now fighting Shou and Kaimaru – "I also have some ninja wire so if I find some sort of opportunity to give one end to you, we might be able to trap him," she mentioned, never looking away from her teacher's figure.

"Then that's a plan." After saying good luck to each other, he quickly sneaked away towards his position as she sneaked to hers. Praying that Shou would find some sort of way to keep Sakurai-sensei's attention for a few more minutes, she readied the ninja wire and grabbed a kunai in her other hand.

 _Deep breaths_ , she thought, hoping that it would calm her jittery nerves. _You can do this_.

...Hah, who was she kidding? She was going to _fail_.

Seeing a glare of metal from the other side of the field, she zeroed on Masaki pointing to Sakurai-sensei.

Inhaling, Makoto muttered to herself, _now or never_. Before she could psych herself out, she sprang forward towards sensei's back as Masaki sprinted towards him from the side. She pulled her arm out for a punch, only for her sensei to stop her by grabbing her fist. Without batting an eyelash, he threw her towards Masaki, causing her to crash into her teammate.

"Oomph!" They flew back a few meters before stopping. The two didn't let this hinder their attack plan and quickly untangled themselves. While doing this, Makoto quickly handed Masaki an end to her ninja wire. They jumped away from each other, now executing Plan B. Running to Sakurai-sensei's left side, Masaki began attacking from the right as Shou held his own from the front. Tightening her hold on her end of the wire, she too began her attack.

Sakurai, on the other hand, immediately noticed the ninja wire in Makoto's hand. However, he decide to play along, now interested in what his team would execute with said wire. Judging by the shocked look on Shou, he was also deduced that Masaki and Makoto were the ones who came up with the plan to attack him from his blind sides.

He was now officially amused. For a group of kids that had absolutely no prior experience with teamwork, they were in tandem with one another. If one failed in their attack, another was quick to fill in that spot.

He blocked a kick from Makoto as he dodged a bite from Kaimaru.

... _Ah,_ he knew what they were doing. Makoto, without him realizing, had given Masaki ninja wire connected to her own. They had lured him into a trap of sort by circling around him as they fought, dodged, and attacked him. At this, Sakurai allowed himself to smile.

They were good.

He had seen enough―this was enough for today.

Sakurai purposely allowed himself to get wrapped up in the harmless ninja wire and within minutes, the trio had managed to stop him in his tracks. As the fight finished, his students were all heaving, sweat dripping off of their foreheads, as they practically collapsed onto the grass around them. "Hm...you guys did good for your first time," he congratulated as he untangled himself.

"Y-You're...not t-tired?" Shou quietly asked from his position underneath his ninken.

"No, I'm not." Turning to Makoto and Masaki, he firmly nodded his head. "You two, it was a good idea with the ninja wire. Although, if you're going to use that kind of attack in the future, you're going to need to find a way to keep the wire hidden from the enemy."

"H-Hai."

"And you, Inuzuka."

"Yes, Sensei?"

Narrowing his eyes, he shook his head. "You're an idiot. What in the right mind made you think attacking me like that was a good idea?"

Shou slowly sat up and pointed to his two teammates. "Well, I figured that those two would come up with something smart as I kept you distracted. I'm the strongest fighter here― _oh_ , don't look at me like that, you know it's true Masaki." Shrugging his shoulders, he continued, "I put my faith in 'em and it seemed like it was a good idea."

At this, Sakurai let out a painful sigh, rubbing his forehead. "It might have worked this time but you can't do this every time, Inuzuka. You _need_ to create a plan with them―it's crucial for teams, especially if you find yourself fighting the enemy. Going head first like you did was _stupid_."

"B-But -"

"And while your somewhat stupid plan succeeded today, it won't next time." Sakurai hardened his voice, hoping to scare some sense into his student. "Is that understood?"

Gulping, Shou quickly nodded his head. "H-Hai."

"Good." Straightening his spine, he looked down at his three students. "But you all did well. I'm proud of you. It seems like Kushina made us all obentos so we'll eat and then afterwards, start our first mission."

At this, Makoto stood up and stretched. "Already? Aren't we supposed to...I don't know, train more?" she asked, recovering second after Shou. "Work on our skills?"

"It depends on the teacher. Certain people will wait for their teams to develop a sense of camaraderie between one another before assigning missions. Others will go straight into missions _to_ develop it."

She narrowed her eyes. "You could have just said that's what you want to do."

"I could have."

"...Okay then. So, what's for lunch?"

* * *

 **Camaraderie**

* * *

"You really need to cut your hair, blondie."

"I don't give two _shits_ about what you think I need to do! Just get the fucking cat _out of my hair!_ " Makoto screeched out, both in desperation and in pain, completely out of character. She didn't care that she just cursed in front of an adult―something she wasn't supposed to do―and she didn't care that she just shouted at her teammate.

She just wanted the fucking cat _gone._

The boy's eyes widened at her use of colorful words. "A-Alright, just _calm_ down," he tried reasoning, holding his hands out. There was a hissing sound from the top of her head as she felt the claws dig into her skull.

"Do you really think I'm going to be _calm?!_ " she growled, a second away from wrapping her tiny hands around his neck―

"I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to that thing!"

Her eye twitched.

"It's okay, kitty kitty―"

It suddenly hissed at him, causing Shou to quickly pull his hands back. "...Maybe we should get Masaki to do this," he suggested, looking uneasily at Kaimaru who stood behind him.

Makoto had to take a deep breath, despite the pain, to stop herself from choking the life out of him. "Then go get him, _now._ " She didn't care how and she didn't care who, she just wanted this demon of a cat away from her.

Now.

The mission itself seemed harmless when they received it and while they all received sympathetic looks from those at the mission desk, she had thought the entire time, _it can't be that bad_.

Oh, how _wrong_ she was. The mission went downhill the moment the cat caught scent of Kaimaru and Shou. She didn't understand how but it managed to evade nearly _everything_ they tried to do to capture it. Set a trap? It went around it. Try to grab it? It scratched the three of them and bit Kaimaru before running away. They had tried _everything_ and it just didn't want to get caught.

Yet, for some godforsaken reason, it had taken a liking to her hair.

 _Her hair_.

It wasn't even that long―it barely reached the middle of her back! One second she and Shou were all walking around together, Kaimaru trying to catch a scent of the damn thing as Masaki went to buy more bait, and then suddenly, there was a cat yowling next to her ear as it dug its claws into her skull. Even after being stuck in this mess for the past ten minutes she didn't understand how it even managed to get tangled into her blonde locks.

"I'll be right back, okay? Masaki's gotta be around here." She could only watch as Shou ran off, Kaimaru in tow, as they went looking for their remaining teammate.

When his back disappeared around the corner, she carefully turned to Sakurai-sensei, who was sharpening his kunai while leaning against the building in the alleyway they were in.

"Why are you refusing to help us?" she demanded, throwing any type of formalities out of the nonexistent window.

Sensei barely gave her a look before saying nonchalantly, "This is _your_ mission; you three need to figure something out." He proceeded to shrug his shoulders as he looked at the small orange tabby stuck in her hair. "I'm not always going to be there to help you."

"Sensei…" Makoto felt her mouth twitch in annoyance. "Don't you think you're treating this a little too...harshly?" She clenched her fists in pain as the cat pulled on something, causing pain to run across her scalp. "This is our second day as a team!"

He pointed the kunai at her. "And we're in a middle of a war. Who knows how long it'll be until we're sent out of the village for something as simple as an escort mission that can turn wrong."

"But this is a _cat_."

 _A fucking demon of a cat,_ she silently said to herself.

"Like I said, it's _your_ mission. You guys are to deal with it. I will interfere in missions if I see fit and for today's mission, I will not be giving you guys a helping hand." He narrowed his eyes and then growled, "Deal with it."

Makoto turned away but not before muttering, "Deal with it, _my ass_." She knew that gleam in his eyes - she saw it all the time in Jiraiya when he made her do something stupid. She figured that Sensei just didn't want to deal with the cat himself.

The bastard.

Clenching her jaw once more because of the constant tugging and pain that came from the small cat, she saw Masaki and Shou running towards her.

"Finally!" She nearly collapsed in joy at the sight of them. "Get this damn thing out!"

Masaki was the first to reach her, a bag in his hands. "I got some cat snacks that the shop said was their best sellin' ones." He pulled out a random one out of the plastic bag and ripped it open with his teeth. "This'll probably work."

"How?! The cat's _stuck!_ A stupid snack isn't going to help it untangle itself!" She felt about ready to stomp her foot down in the ground like a toddler.

Her teammates shared an uneasy look before turning to her. "Well…"

"Well _what?!_ "

"We were talking and we thought that if we couldn't untangle the cat out of your hair, we could always...cut it."

Her face was devoid of any emotion at the mention of this. "...What," she said with an eerie calm despite the situation they all were in.

"...Yeah," Masaki pointed to the Hokage Tower. "Since the cat might run away if we cut it out now, you're going to have to walk to the Mission's Desk like this, but we can cut it out of your hair."

They all stood silently for a few seconds, only the sound of a screaming cat resonating throughout the tight alleyway. Then, without a single word, Makoto whirled around and began walking in the direction of the Hokage Tower.

"W-Where are you going?" Shou uneasily asked, sparing a glance with Masaki.

The blonde whirled her head around and glared at him. "Where the hell do you think, Shou-kun?" And with that, she continued in her path, only stopping every few seconds to hit the cat that wouldn't stop squirming around in her hair.

"S-She's so different from earlier," he muttered to his teammate.

Masaki nodded his head in agreement as they followed after Makoto, Sakurai-sense close behind them. "She was so timid and quiet during class too." It was quite amazing, really, to see someone change so much like this.

Once he thought about it, he realized that she never really participated in class and tended to stay in the back of the group, clearly shy and in a way, intimidated by the rest of their former classmates.

Where was that shy, quiet girl that wanted to them to all get along? He had absolutely no idea. Clearly, judging by the fumes that we're practically coming out of her, that Makoto from earlier was gone.

"Man, girls are scary." Shou shuttered, along with a quiet whine from his ninken. "But at least she kept the honorifics?" That much didn't seem to change despite how angry she was.

Masaki simply grimaced before answering, "I don't think that really helps."

"...I guess." Just seeing the change in her made the Inuzuka realize that she was someone that he never wanted to piss off.

Ever.

At the speed Makoto was walking, it didn't take them long to reach the missions desk. "Alright, where's the -"

Makoto growled out while pointing, "Are you blind? The thing is _stuck_ in my hair."

The Chunin froze, staring at the blonde girl as her teammates stood a healthy distance away. For someone who was only nine, she managed to inflict some sort of fear in him. Watching her...it reminded him of a certain someone but he just... _couldn't_ put his finger on who.

The room remained silent for a few more seconds before their Jounin-sensei walked over to the chunin with a sigh. He handed him their mission scroll while pointing to the cat. "We need to cut the cat out of her hair so give us a minute." Sakurai didn't bother hearing a response before he barked out, "Inuzuka, Takahata, come here." The two boys dragged themselves over and listened to him as he ordered, "Get that cat out of Namikaze's hair before she kills the damn thing."

"H-Hai." Masaki was the first to step up to the fuming Makoto, a kunai in his hands. "I'm sorry, Makoto."

She remained silent but the anger burning in her eyes was a clear enough answer. With a shaky hand, he lifted the kunai up, but the sudden screech that came from the animal caused him to drop the weapon in surprise.

"Ow!" Makoto winced as she hit the cat once more.

Masaki took an unsteady step back before apologizing, "I'm sorry!"

Her eyes narrowed on him before she demanded, "Just cut it!"

Shou, on the other hand, steeled his nerves and grabbed the kunai on the ground. Without saying a word to anyone, he lifted the weapon and sliced a part of Makoto's hair off. They all turned silent as the trio watched the lock of hair harmlessly float to the ground.

"...Don't just stand there, you useless idiots, get it out!" Makoto shouted out a few seconds later, along with a loud, _meow_ , from the cat.

"H-Hai!" As Shou got to work cutting the hair while being careful to not hurt the cat's paws―despite having an urge to do exactly that―Masaki had his hands above the screaming demon to prevent it from running amok once it got free.

That was how, ten minutes later, Team Eight found themselves handing over a screeching cat to the Daimyo's sister.

"Oh thank you, thank you so much!" The lady practically manhandled the cat as she nearly smothered it with her hugs. "He's such an angel but sometimes, he likes to run away." She then proceeded to giggle before asking, "I hope he didn't cause too much trouble."

Shou was quick to notice the twitch in Makoto's eyes and when she opened her mouth, he knew it couldn't be anything good. He quickly slapped his hands over her mouth and said in her stead, "It was no trouble at all, Miura-sama!" Makoto struggled while throwing daggers at him with her eyes. She was pulling at his hands and she would have successfully ripped his hands away if it weren't for Masaki interfering and covering Shou's hand with his own.

The lady looked at the three children with a weird but condescending look on her face and Sakurai completely understood why. Makoto stood in the middle of the three genin as she screamed into their hands, muffling most of what she said, as she whipped her uneven hair everywhere. Masaki and Shou stood on each side, both barely covering her mouth to prevent her from saying something offensive.

"We'll take our leave." Sakurai nearly snorted at this sight and quickly bowed his head before dragging his students out of the room.

The moment they were out of earshot, Makoto managed to kick her teammates away from her. They fell to the ground in a loud crash, both rubbing their shins, Kaimaru l licking his owner in an attempt to help. "That ungrateful shitty _cat_ ," she hissed out through clenched teeth. Without saying a goodbye, Makoto stormed away and left the boys alone with their sensei.

Gulping, Shou looked up to Sakurai-sensei from his position on the floor. "Did we do okay for our first mission?"

The man simply shrugged his shoulder. "I mean, you got the cat here, didn't you? I'd call that a successful mission." There were many things that he'd have to teach them to do differently but for their first mission, they _did_ manage to have some sort of teamwork.

...Well, until the cat did what it did to Makoto.

A scoff interrupted the two. "If you could even call _that_ successful," Masaki said. "Makoto's going to hate us for what we did."

"It's not like we had a choice! You saw how tangled the cat was!" Suddenly, a confused look passed over Shou's face. "Wait, how did it even _get_ tangled like that in the first place?"

Masaki rolled his eyes. "You tell me― _you_ were the one who was with her when the cat nose-dived into her hair."

"I dunno man…" The Inuzuka stood up and began walking towards the exit. "Oh man, she's going to kill us tomorrow, isn't she?"

Sakurai only sympathetically patted the two boys on their shoulder. "You'll survive." He then added after a slight pause, "...Probably."

* * *

 **Camaraderie – The End**

* * *

 **A/N:** _This was kind of a filler chapter but I hope it was interesting. Senior year starts in about a week and I have AP HW that I still haven't finished so I can't promise an update super quickly but I'll be sure to work on the next chapter as fast as I can!_

 _Please review! I love what you guys write and I love knowing what your guys' opinions are!_

 _Until next time!~_


	8. Chapter 8

_Summary_ : From Heaven above and Hell below, she is the Handmaiden of Death, killing without mercy. Death is her only companion in life; and as she dreams of him, she drowns in tidal waves of blood. Who is she? She is Namikaze Makoto; this is her story.

* * *

" **The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."**

Lao Tzu

* * *

Disclaimer: _I don't own Naruto, only any original characters._

* * *

 **Safe and Sound** _  
_ _ **08:**_ _Speed_

Makoto could only watch in disgust as she watched Shou inhale an entire plate of yakiniku in a matter of seconds. "Oh my _god_."

Gulping, the Inuzuka looked up from his rice. "What?"

Makoto, whose eyes were still as wide as the saucers on the table, couldn't help but grab her napkin from the table to wipe Shou's face. She didn't warn him in advance, so she took him by surprise when she suddenly wiped the sauce that coated nearly the bottom half of his face. "Have you _ever_ heard of manners?"

After shoving her away, he grumbled, "I was hungry." Narrowing her eyes, she saw that he was now turning red and looking down in embarrassment.

Great, now he was being self-conscious about it.

Makoto, who had been hoping for some sort of help from their other teammate, received none. Masaki simply blinked a few times before letting out an uninterested sigh.

How freaking _typical_.

She pointed her chopsticks at him, who raised an eyebrow. "You're useless." Then turning to Shou, who shrunk back into his seat from the intense glare he was receiving, could only listen as Makoto growled, "And you need freaking _manners_."

For a nine-year-old, she sure knew how to silence a table.

Sakurai, grinning from behind his book in the corner of the booth, watched as his entire team proceeded to bicker with one another.

His team was becoming more and more like an actual _team_ over the course of the past couple of months. They discovered how to work with one another without words, something he thought would have taken _years_ to develop. Yet, his team had managed to do exactly that and he sure as hell was proud of it.

Not only that, the three had progressed so much in their training. The most improved on the team was Shou, who could barely do the Academy required jutsu a few months back, now had perfected those jutsus. Makoto, who once struggled physically compared to the rest of her team, could now easily work alongside the two boys while having increased her chakra reserves. Masaki, although who didn't really seem like he physically changed, internally had. His chakra reserves had grown nearly a quarter of what they were originally and he now had a longer list of jutsus to his advantage.

All in all, they were a great team. Even Sakurai could admit that. Sure, he didn't have a confirmed prodigy on his team, but he sure as hell had a team that balanced each other out.

He was proud, to say the least.

" _Sensei!_ " Returning his attention back to the table, Sakurai saw his three students looking at him.

"...Yes?"

Masaki began first. "Could ya take us to that one ice cream cafe down the street?"

Makoto furiously nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah, please! You said today was your treat!"

How long had he been out for them to suddenly start talking about dessert when they had been arguing? Turning his head to Shou, he saw the Inuzuka now eating the meat on his plate once more, only throwing in once, "Yeah, take us for dessert!"

"I guess."

"Yes!" Makoto threw a fist in the air before she followed Shou in shoving the food in her mouth as quickly as possible, with Masaki soon doing the same after her.

So much for manners. Makoto was contradicting herself, wasn't she? Eating the way she was – the girl five minutes ago would be disgusted with what she saw here.

But yeah...although weird, they were a good team.

* * *

 **Speed**

* * *

 _Six months later_

 _It was dark._

 _Too dark._

 _She reaches blindly into the dark, hoping to feel something – anything._

" _H-Hello?" she calls out, feeling nothing. She hugs her arms to herself. "Is there someone there?"_

" _...Behind you!"_

 _She whirls around at the sudden whisper in her ear but still cannot see anything. It is still dark and the voices she now begins to hear do nothing to help stop her fear from growing._

" _No, in front of you!"_

 _She turns back around and continues to see only the darkness._

" _Beside you!" She closes her eyes and crouches down, praying that the voices leave her alone._

 _They don't._

 _The whispers are now louder, rising in several octaves until all she hears is screaming from everywhere._

" _Behind you!"_

" _Stop!" she cries, pressing the palms of her hands against her ears. "Please, stop!"_

" _Next to you!"_

" _Please!"_

" _Beside you!_

" _Please…" Tears stream down as she now lies in a fetal position on the ground. The voices pay her no attention as they continue their screams of pain, of torment. They scream and scream and scream, never letting her go out of their grip._

 _She breaks._

 _They stop when she is no more._

Makoto's dreams varied. Sometimes, she was alone, and sometimes, she was with those she cared for. Although, on her good nights, she had _no_ nightmares. She liked to think that on those nights, she was somewhat normal, that she was not an abnormality in the world of shinobi.

Yet, even her bad nights managed to scare her when she was forced to recall them. She was always alone in those dreams, never in the company of another. She never saw her tormenter and while when she was younger, her nightmares centered around the blood that she saw on that horrid day at the Hatake Compound, now?

It was no one.

In all honestly, it was easier back then when her fear of blood was the main cause of her nightmares. Yet, as she grew, so too did her dreams. They now were unexplainable, always ever changing. She rarely saw the same thing twice.

The only thing she did know was the voices. They tore at her, they screamed at her, they teased her – they did everything in their power to make sure she wasn't sane.

And quite frankly, Makoto knew she wasn't quite sane.

Not anymore.

"Makoto, are you ready?"

Blinking, she refocused her attention back to the redhead in front of her. "Hai, Kushina-neesan."

Kushina frowned at the bags underneath the young Namikaze's eyes. She gently placed a hand on Makoto's shoulder before saying, "Hey...do you want to talk?"

The ten-year-old blonde forced a smile onto her face. "I'm okay." After pushing in the chair she had been sitting on, she grabbed her pack from the side of the entrance. "Well, I'll see you tonight!" she called out as she ran out of the apartment.

"Be careful!" she heard Kushina shout out from behind her.

After the building disappeared from her eyesight, Makoto slowed to a walk. She yawned and stretched, her limbs still heavy from yesterday's workout.

It didn't help that she had a headache too.

She brushed her hand through her short blonde hair and as she allowed herself to take in the cold, October air, her mood brightened with the sights of the red and brown of the turning leaves.

The weather was perfect in her opinion. She had changed into her shin-high shinobi boots which covered the toes a month prior, and unlike the typical shinobi sandals, they actually kept her feet _warm_. She wore her thin but insulated leggings tucked into them with her large, warm, and chakra controlled army-green turtleneck that fell past much over her waist. For an extra layer of warmth and storage, she kept the sweater underneath a large black hoodie that held more pockets than what met the eye.

Her look was tied together with her weapons pack on her upper right thigh and her headband underneath her bangs that were cut above her eyebrows. Her bangs – thank god – did not spike up and simply fell over the headband normally. The remainder of her hair, while having an _interesting_ year, finally grew out to where it was now evenly resting above her shoulders. It was just as wild as Minato's hair as it had enough volume to where a regular hairband would snap in a matter of minutes. So she simply gave up and let it be – she didn't really care about trivial things like that. Although, not caring also meant that she now looked identical to Minato when he was her age – the blonde hair, the blue sharp, upturned eyes and everything else.

Height included.

It amused Kushina, to say the least.

As Makoto walked up to the training ground, she saw that she was the first one there. Sighing, she sat down under a tree and allowed her head to rest against it as she waited for her fellow teammates.

These past six months were quite tiring for her, as it was hard staying optimistic in a war-torn environment like Konoha's with soldiers coming back either traumatized, injured, or both. In fact, it was _extremely_ hard when most shinobi were coming back left and right as dog tags. She couldn't even count the times she saw crying lovers or stretchers full of the wounded – there was just too many times she's found herself just...watching, and it scared her every time because her traitorous mind would start thinking about her own team.

While her team hadn't been assigned to any C-Rank missions like most other ones, even she knew it was only a matter of time before it happened. Hell, even her brother's team have had their first C-Rank a week prior to today.

"Makoto!" Turning her head towards the shout, she waved her hand as she greeted Shou.

"What do you think we're doing today?" he asked, catching up to her.

"Honestly, I don't know. Sensei didn't tell us yesterday." The Inuzuka, ninken in tow, sat down next to her as they continued waiting in a comfortable silence. About ten minutes had passed before they saw Masaki walking towards them, Sensei close behind him.

"Alright you three, today, we'll be doing something different," Sakurai began a few minutes later, Makoto, Shou, and Masaki all standing around him.

"Different?"

"We're going to work on chakra control." The trio groaned the moment the words left his mouth, much to his amusement. "I know you guys don't like this part of training but it's got to be done."

Makoto, who remained the quietest out of the three, perked her head up and met her eyes with his before asking, " What are we going to work on?"

"Tree climbing."

Along with her teammates, she looked uneasily at the many large trees that were scattered around the field. "Do we have to climb to the top?"

Smirking, Sakurai nodded his head. "Yes, you do."

Silently cursing her Sensei, Makoto begrudgingly watched as he did a simple demonstration a minute later. "The key is that you don't put too much chakra in your feet. You put too little, you don't stick. Put too much?" he asked, turning to his students. "What'll happen?"

Everyone remained silent for a few seconds and Makoto, already wanting to get this part of the training over with, answered, "You explode off." Although not personally experiencing this herself, she had heard the interesting story from Kushina about Obito's failure to tree walk about a month ago.

At the mention of exploding off, a scream from beside her caused her to wince and rub her right ear. "What?!" Shou grabbed his hair and began looking at all of them nervously. "I need my feet," he whispered, more to himself than anyone else.

Makoto groaned at his exaggeration, along with Masaki. "Not _literally_ , you idiot," the other boy deadpanned.

Whirling around, Shou scowling at Masaki angrily. "Don't call me an idiot!"

Masaki scoffed before turning away from him in disregard, like usual.

Sakurai remained standing in front of them for a few more awkward seconds before muttering, "What the hell are you three waiting for?" He raised an eyebrow. "Get started." After another collective groan from the three, he watched as Makoto began the exercise first. With the best chakra control on the team, he would not be shocked if she was able to master tree walking by the end of the day, perhaps even sooner if she put her mind to it. Masaki and Shou, on the other hand, he wasn't quite sure of. While Masaki didn't have the worst chakra control, he wasn't the best and struggled quite normally like most. If he was lucky, he _may_ succeed today, but even Sakurai wasn't sure about.

Shou, though, wouldn't even get halfway done today. Sakurai knew that for sure.

He watched for the first few minutes and threw in what he thought were helpful tips to his students, but it soon got pretty...boring. It may have been interesting at first, seeing the kids exploding off or falling from not gathering enough chakra, but after a good fifteen minutes, he knew he wanted spend his time a doing something else.

Hm...maybe meditating. The past few weeks were pretty with training and missions, so he hadn't had time to quietly sit down and meditate like usual. GGShou's ninken, Kaimaru, having nothing to do, laid down next to him as he sat on the ground, his legs crossed and hands resting on his knees. Taking a quick glance at the dog, he pat Kaimaru's head before closing his eyes. He was crossing his legs and making sure to keep the chakra signatures of his students in the back of his mind, before beginning his meditation.

Deep breaths.

About an hour later, an excited shout brought Sakurai out of his meditative state. He had continued monitoring all of their chakra's and had noticed that Makoto's remained quite steady for the past ten minutes, which he knew was a good sign.

"Oh my god Makoto, that's so fucking amazing!" Shou screamed out as he looked up in awe, Masaki doing the same next to him.

Sakurai walked towards the tree that they were crowding around and saw Makoto hanging upside down by her feet, a smirk on her face. "Hmm…" Somewhat proud, he praised, "Good job, Makoto."

She giggled and jumped down with a loud thud. After readjusting herself, she looked up at him in glee. "That was so cool, Sensei! Did you see?"

"You did well."

Makoto couldn't help but jump from happiness. She had done it! It wasn't as hard as she thought it would be – and when she succeeded, she felt something she hadn't felt since the first day the team managed to do something together without arguing on one of their missions.

It was a feeling of accomplishment.

After standing for a few more seconds, she asked her sensei, "So...now what?" Her teammates remained standing around her, their teacher looking at them.

Sakurai remained standing for a few more seconds until he shrugged his shoulders. "I wasn't expected any of you to finish _this_ quickly so...I don't know, practice your kunai throwing or taijutsu. Or do something else, I don't care."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Sakurai turned to the two boys before motioning with his head back to one of the trees. "You two, get back to practicing."

"... _Hai_ , sensei," Shou muttered as he dragged himself back to his tree.

Makoto, now having nothing to do, decided to do the one thing she wasn't able to last night.

She slept.

* * *

 **Speed**

* * *

 _One Month Later:_ _November_

Today was a big day. It was Team Eight's first C-rank mission _and_ their first mission outside of Konoha. After months of constant D-rank missions that tested the limits of their friendship – especially because the missions started off on a bad note with Makoto's hair – Sakurai-sensei had deemed them fit for something a little harder.

And that was how Team Eight found themselves with a scroll meant to be transported to a Konoha outpost some couple hundred kilometers away. They weren't the first team to have gotten a C-rank, though. Already, various teams around her were receiving C-ranks that would have terrified her to no ends.

An example would be Team Nine – they had gotten their third C-Rank a month prior to her team. She also knew that half of Team Nine was now dead, including their Jounin sensei, murdered by Kiri-nin that had intercepted them on their way to an outpost.

The other half remained in a psychiatric ward of the hospital.

But despite the odds that she heard – and saw – Makoto felt that her team would be okay. They had great teamwork that she knew would help them be successful in their future missions to come.

Finally reaching the main gate, she saw that Masaki was already waiting for the team, a book in his hand as he leaned against the wall, his bag to the left of him. "Masaki!" she called as she caught up to him. "Are you the first one here?"

"I think so but who knows, sensei's probably hidin' somewhere," he answered, closing his book and packing it back into his bag. "At least Shou's on time."

She turned around and saw the Inuzuka duo running towards them, but her attention was on the ninken who was bounding towards her. "Hi, Kaimaru!" she greeted with a giggle as the ninken tried jumping onto her. Barely reaching her hips, Kaimaru wasn't the largest ninken she had ever seen.

Tripping, Makoto fell to the ground as Kaimaru began assaulting her with his kisses – something she had gotten used to in their months of training together. "How are ya?" she managed to ask, now scratching behind his ear that she knew he loved to be scratched in. Kaimaru had taken a real liking to her, always jumping onto her and surprisingly enough, _listening_ to her.

"Kaimaru, get _over_ here!" Shou tried demanding but the stubborn dog – who reminded everyone of his _very_ stubborn owner – remained rooted in his position next to Makoto. Kaimaru only moved when she gave him one last pet and nudged him in Shou's direction.

"Shou, you have everythin'?"

"'Course I do!" The boy opened his bag and showed his teammates what he brought. "I even brought Kaimaru's...food..." The three remained silent for a few seconds before the Inuzuka loudly cursed. "That's what I forgot to pack!"

"Why is that the one thing you forget every time?" Makoto growled out as she pulled out a brown bag labeled with one of the Inuzuka's ninken food, on the front. "You're lucky that I figured you'd forget Kaimaru's food."

She had stolen it from underneath her sink – it was Kakashi's, but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

"Makoto-chan, you're my savior!" Shou dramatically thanked. He got down on his knees and began bowing to her, his arms raised high above him. "You're the goddess, the queen, the savior of –"

"If you don't get up right now, I'm going to knee you in your balls."

"Hai, understood." Makoto gave him a sickly sweet smile as Shou gave her a terrifying look.

After their incident with that demon of a cat months ago, Makoto got rid of _all_ honorifics with the team – well, besides sensei because he's, well, _sensei_. She said what was on her mind and didn't care what the two thought of her. If she didn't like what they said, she'd tell them. If they wouldn't listen, she'd _make_ them listen. If she was annoyed, she would make sure in hell to tell them. She was having absolutely _no_ shit when it came to them.

If that made her a bad person, well, fuck those who thought that.

But all in all, this managed to bring the three closer together and now, they were doing great. Their friendship with one another flourished and their relationship with Sakurai-sensei did as well. The man, while still remaining stoic and scary as hell, slightly opened up and would now smile every now and then. Hell, he even cracked a joke on a rare occasion.

Sakurai shunshined behind Makoto and looked at his team. "Hmm...eight o'clock sharp. I'm impressed."

"Good morning sensei!"

"Good morning." Tilting his head, Sakurai looked at the three. "Are you three ready for your mission?" he asked as he held up a scroll.

"Hai!"

Continuing to hold up the scroll, he asked, "Out of the three of you, who do you think should have the scroll?"

Makoto looked quizzically at him. "Shouldn't _you_ hold onto it? Since you're the Jounin?"

Sakurai nodded his head at her observation. "I _should_ , but that doesn't mean I will."

"Well…" Shou looked at Kaimaru before voicing his opinion. "We should give it to Makoto then, right? She's the fastest out of the three of us, besides you, Sensei."

"What do you think, Masaki?"

"Me?"

The boy shrugged his shoulders, an uninterested look on his face. "I mean, I guess. She's the fastest."

"Wait, don't I get a say –"

Sakurai, ignoring Makoto, dropped the scroll onto her hands. "Keep it safe!"

"W-Wait, Sensei!"

"Let's go!"

" _Sensei!_ " She stood there with her mouth hanging open as the rest of her team began running in the direction of the outpost. "W-Wait!" Shoving the scroll in her bag, she quickly hoisted it onto her shoulders before running after them.

* * *

 **Speed**

* * *

"Let's stop for the night," Sakurai announced. This was met by a relieved groan from the trio behind him and a quiet whimper from the ninken.

"Thank god, I thought we were going to be running _forever_."

Makoto practically threw herself onto the ground as she laid her head on her outstretched arms. "I could care less about dinner right now – I just want to sleep."

"Same." Masaki laid himself against the tree in the forest they had stopped in.

"Alright you three, let's get camp set up before you all fall asleep." Sakurai pulled them all up before shoving them into three different directions. "Get some wood for the fire, Makoto, and Shou, you'll scout the area to make sure we're alone. Masaki, get some dinner started. I'll keep watch."

"Hai, sensei." As three disappeared, Sakurai jumped up into the tree and began his watch. Although only sensing his team, he couldn't help but be on edge – it had been _months_ since his last mission outside of Konoha, something he wasn't quite comfortable with. Being stuck inside of the village, doing nothing but training with his team made him feel...antsy, to say the least. It was something he wasn't quite used to – the last time he was grounded this long in Konoha was...god, he didn't even _remember_ the last time this had happened.

He knew they were in a war – he knew about the casualties that Konoha was having. You'd have to be _blind_ to not see it. Two teams from this year alone were all killed and another was disbanded simply because the Jounin teacher in charge was killed.

Taking a deep breath, Sakurai looked up to the stars that were shining above him. He hoped that his team stayed safe – the annoying runts had grown on him, much to his disappointment. He didn't want to care about them like he did now because that would lead only to pain once something bad happened.

And that was bound to happen.

Rustling came from behind him, revealing Makoto carrying a bundle of logs and sticks. After placing them onto the ground, she pulled out a match and quickly lit it on fire, illuminating the area.

He frowned at the sight of his youngest student. She was sitting next to the fire, her knees to her chest, as she stared into the flames that emphasized the shadows on her face. He had read her files, he knew how much of a mess no one wanted to admit she was. He saw the darkness in her eyes that he hadn't seen since...himself, actually, years and years ago. She hadn't even had her first kill yet and that darkness in her...he didn't have words for it. Although she still continued her therapy with the Yamanaka, he wasn't sure if it was working.

And not to mention, she must have felt pressured because of her brother. Minato – bless the boy – was still quite naive and blinded with the emotions of his loved ones. The Namikaze, although a certified genius, didn't realize how much that label he had affected his younger sister. She was constantly being compared to Minato, whether she wanted to be or not. Already, the Hokage had asked him if she was on par with her older brother when he was her age. She was smart, don't get him wrong, she was _much_ smarter than those around her, but it was not on a level of Minato _or_ Kakashi, her generation's prodigy.

Sighing, he jumped down and walked towards her. "Everything okay, Makoto?" he tried asking.

The little blonde turned her head up to look at him. "Of course, Sensei, everything's fine."

His frown never disappeared but being a socially awkward person, Sakurai simply said, "...If you say so." He wanted to say more but he didn't have the words.

He wasn't good at this sort of thing.

Masaki emerged from the bushes in front of the two, holding two dead rabbits. "I got dinner," he announced, sitting down.

"Good job."

The three stayed silent as the boy began preparing the dead animal for dinner, but after a few minutes had passed, Makoto worryingly stood up. "Sensei, something doesn't feel right," she muttered as her eyes flew around the entire area. She was holding onto her arms as she began walking in a certain direction. " I can't feel Shou and Kaimaru's signature anymore."

Raising his eyebrows at this, he sat up. Hmm...if she was that worried…

Going through several hand signs for a sensing jutsu – because he wasn't actually a sensor-nin, so he was forced, like most ANBU, to know the basics of sensing – he threw his hands down onto the ground and closed his eyes. Trying to sense for his student, he spread his chakra thin and far –

"Get down!"

He threw himself to the ground as Masaki pushed Makoto to the ground, covering her body with his. Not even a second later, the unmistakable sound of thin, razor sharp, ninja wire whizzing through the air above them could be heard.

Sakurai didn't hesitate a second before pulling out his kunai. He stood up and moved closer to his remaining students. Makoto and Masaki, both pulling out their own weapons, stood back to back behind him.

He sensed three enemy-nin, one who had enough chakra to be a Jounin.

 _Fuck_.

The other two were at least Chunin level, perhaps even higher.

"You two, stay behind me, is that understood? _Don't_ interfere," he commanded, his tone reverting back to his ANBU Trainer voice from back in the day. It seemed to scare his students into submission, though, as they nodded their head without argument.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" An amused voice drawled out. A Kiri-nin walked out from the shadows into the light, illuminating his face. "A genin team from Konoha?" He belched out a laugh as two others emerged from behind him. "Wow, you guys must be _desperate_."

"Where's my other student?"

The enemy-nin from the back threw an unconscious Shou and his ninken to the middle. "Here's your useless genin. It was _so_ easy that it was _boring!_ I mean, I was expecting more of a fight, but come on!" Throwing out his hands, the Jounin in the front took a step forward. "Is this really the quality of Konoha's genin? I mean, if every single shinobi of yours is as weak as he is..." He pointed his tanto to Sakurai's face. "It's not wonder why you guys are fucking losing." Then, in a mocking manner, the man raised his hands over his head and urged his fellow teammates to sing, "The fall of the great Konoha! The fall of the great Konoha!" he chanted.

As he continued standing there, protecting his genins to the best of his ability, Sakurai realized that the shinobi in front of his was _crazy_. The man's eyes were wide and crazed, his mouth constantly opened in a horrifying smile as spit bubbled the corners of his mouth.

"But, as much as I want to stand and chit-chat, I need you to give me something." He opened his hands and said, "The scroll, please?"

Of course, the scroll. At this, Sakurai scowled. "Just let us be, we'll leave. There's no need for bloodshed," he tried reasoning.

"Hah, you think I care if you die or not? I'm asking for your damn scroll so I don't have to clean out the blood from my nails tomorrow." The leader shrugged his shoulders. "I'm in a good mood – be grateful that I'm letting you live in general."

As the two Jounins talked, Makoto closed her eyes as she began concentrating. Something still didn't feel right – where was the fourth member? Most teams would have their leader and then two or three lower-ranking shinobi accompanying them, right?

There _had_ to be a fourth member. Every team that had been attacked or that had successfully fought a group of Kiri-nin reported four shinobi.

 _Four._

As she closed her eyes, Masaki whispered to her, "What are you doing?" She ignored him as she spread out her feet a little more, careful to make it seem like she was just shifting in her position.

These past few months, she had begun training her chakra sensing with Kushina, Minato, and Sakurai-sensei. Although she wasn't the best, she knew she wasn't the _worst_ , and she wanted to put all of her training into good use. Feeling motivated, she spread her chakra down into the ground and the area around her. As she furrowed her forehead in concentration, she felt something moving from below them. "What…?" However, the moment she was about to brush this anomaly aside, she felt it suddenly rising towards them. Panic was quick to set in. "Sensei, below you!" she screamed out just in time. Sakurai, heeding her warning without question, jumped back closer to them. Not even a second later, a shinobi wearing a mask erupted from the ground, a katana raised straight up where Sakurai had stood.

At the sudden intrusion of another shinobi, Sakurai internally cursed once more.

Fuck, this one was another Jounin level shinobi.

Sakurai was now beginning to worry.

"You...you're the Namikaze brat!" one of the enemy-nin shouted out, finally registering her short blonde hair and blue eyes.

Hearing her last name mentioned, Makoto's eyes widened as Sakurai pushed his students back even more.

That didn't make sense, this was her first mission _outside_ of Konoha, how did they know…?

The two chunin level shinobi behind the Jounins took a step backward in fear, but their leader raised a hand before smirking. "Wait, the Yellow Flash is older. Look at her, she's just a kid."

The one in the mask turned his face to her before muttering, "You're his kid sister, aren't you?" _How_ …? Makoto tightened her grip on her kunai as the masked shinobi tilted his head, only his eyes visible. "I'm going to enjoy killing Namikaze Minato's baby sister." She could hear the amusement in his voice, including the venom that dripped from it when he mentioned her brother's name.

Despite their situation, Sakurai couldn't help but grin. The adrenaline, the urge to shove his weapon into their necks, just the overall _rush_ in general – he had missed this.

He was going to enjoy this _greatly_.

Without any warning, he sprang forward and quickly cut down the two chunin level shinobi before him in a speed that managed to impress himself. He then jumped back to his original position, raising his weapon to freeze the two Jounin level enemies in their tracks. He remained in the middle, between his students and the enemy.

"Do you really think you can beat the two of us? At once?"

Tightening his hold on his weapon, he couldn't help but smirk. "Hell yeah, I do."

He wasn't one to brag but after his years and experience in ANBU, he was confident that he'd be able to handle the two of them. He wasn't stupid enough to think it'd be easy – of course, it was going to be hard against two high-level shinobi, but he sure as hell wouldn't go down without a fight. He was one of Konoha's best, goddamnit.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he eyed his last remained student, Shou, who still remained knocked out with his partner.

God, although he had been slightly worried, he was scared now. Not for himself, but for the kids. He wouldn't have hesitated to initiate a fight before but now, with his genin team in danger, he couldn't go headfirst foolishly like that. He needed to be smart, play his cards, because if something were to happen to any of them – and that included the ninken, the dog had grown on him – he would never forgive himself. He wouldn't be able to _live_ with himself.

He never prayed but tonight, it seemed like he would because he would do anything to save these three idiots.

Making up his mind, he watched from the corner of his eyes as he called out his students. "You two," he quietly said, catching Makoto and Masaki's attention. "Whatever happens, you run, alright? You run like there's no tomorrow."

He expected an outburst from Makoto but instead, it came from Masaki. "We can't just... _leave_ you sensei! What about Shou and Kaimaru?"

Sakurai's eyes remained on the enemy. "Don't worry, we'll catch up."

"But –"

"Masaki, he's right." He heard Makoto say. "Whatever happens, the...the mission is supposed to come first." God, Makoto hated what she just said. She was practically preaching Kakashi – he'd be proud of her, that was for sure. "Besides, do you think Sensei's that weak? He'll be okay, I know it."

Sakurai, allowing himself to look away for a quick second, met his gaze with hers. He gave her a firm nod before returning his attention back to the Kiri-nin.

Makoto, seeing this, held in her tears as she looked back at Masaki. She saw the defiance in his eyes, so she grabbed his hand and began running, hoping that Sensei didn't see the tears that escaped her control falling from her eyes. She didn't understand – how did this day go so wrong so quickly?

She felt the hesitation in Masaki – he was slightly pulling her back, almost as if he was considering running back towards Sensei. However, this hesitation disappeared when the sound of fighting began from behind them.

Shit, they needed to hurry.

Makoto was fast – hell, she was probably the fastest in her generation. She was even faster than Kakashi, who now was a Chunin.

Yet, Masaki was not. He wasn't slow by all means, and he could maintain a pretty decent speed, but he had no stamina when it came to running at full burst like they were right now, especially when they had already spent most of their chakra and energy traveling during the day. So that was why after running for what felt like hours, but what was perhaps only thirty minutes, Makoto knew they were in trouble.

"Masaki, you need to hurry, we're almost there," she tried encouraging as she threw fearful glances behind her, the weight of the damned scroll heavy on her back and mind.

The boy was trying, even she could tell, but judging by the branch he nearly missed a few meters back and the harsh breaths he was releasing, they didn't have long.

"Makoto...go on –"

"Like _hell_." They jumped down onto the ground and she grabbed his hand once more. "Hurry your fucking ass up!"

Although not shocked by her choice of words, he was taken aback by the intensity of them. "S-Sorry," he managed to say in between his harsh breaths. He pushed the rest of his chakra into his legs as they began running even _faster_.

They would make it.

They _had_ too.

* * *

 **Speed – End**

* * *

 **A/N:** _Guess who's back from the dead? Me!_

 _...Actually, nevermind, I'm not really back. I'm still dead inside lmao._

 _But, onto better news! Here's a new chapter and I hope it was good! I originally had it split into two different chapters but after struggling for the past two weeks trying to finish one chapter, I couldn't really figure out how to do that so I just...merged them together. It might be pretty rushed but...I'm sorry!_

 _Honestly, though, this was probably a shitty chapter._

 _Sorry._

 _But hey, I love you guys for following this story! I'm going to try to have the next chapter up as soon as I can! I know you might be pissed that I left it off on a cliffhanger so I'll hurry :)_

 _Oh, so, if any of you were curious to see how Makoto looks like (at least, as an adult) I tried to draw her to the best of my ability so you'll find her on my tumblr under the #myart tag! My username is the same as mine right here on FF: IntoTheDeep27!_

 _So until we meet again, please **review!** _

_See ya next time guys!_


	9. Chapter 9

_Summary_ : From Heaven above and Hell below, she is the Handmaiden of Death, killing without mercy. Death is her only companion in life; and as she dreams of him, she drowns in tidal waves of blood. Who is she? She is Namikaze Makoto; this is her story.

* * *

" **It may be he shall take my hand  
And lead me into his dark land  
And close my eyes and quench my breath—  
It may be I shall pass him still.  
I have a rendezvous with Death  
On some scarred slope of battered hill,  
When Spring comes round again this year  
And the first meadow-flowers appear."**

 _I Have a Rendezvous with Death_ , Alan Seeger

* * *

Disclaimer: _I don't own Naruto, only any original characters._

* * *

 **Safe and Sound** _  
_ _ **09:**_ _Rendezvous with Death_

Makoto, with Masaki dragging himself behind her, flared her chakra in the proper pattern that they had been taught that would notify fellow Konoha shinobi of who she was.

Genin, mission compromised, scroll.

With three simple flares, three different shinobi appeared.

"Shinobi number," one demanded.

"Where's the scroll?" another asked.

"The assailants, who were they?" another growled.

Makoto, already on a brink of a nervous breakdown, took an uneasy step into Masaki's shoulder as her chest began to feel heavy and her head light and dizzy.

Too much, _too much._

"Our teacher is Sakurai Tsuyoshi and here is the scroll," Masaki interrupted her thoughts by answering their questions to the best of his ability. "The enemy was Kiri-nin. We...our teammate and sensei were left behind."

The leader of the group, the one who had asked for their shinobi number, made a move to say something but Makoto, recovering from her near-nervous breakdown, looked at him. "He...he has to be alive, right?" she hopefully asked.

The man, seeing the fear in the two kids eyes, couldn't help but soften his somewhat hard exterior because they reminded him of his own children. "We'll see."

However, before the fear and adrenaline could settle itself, Makoto and a fellow Konoha shinobi in front of them whirled their heads to the left, and the chunin shouted in alarm, "Incoming enemy-nin!"

The reaction was immediate – several enemy-nin appeared from the woods as Konoha shinobi shot out from the large outpost. "You two, get to the outpost!"

In unison, the duo nodded their head and let out a loud, "Hai," before running towards the tall building.

However, they were intercepted by an enemy only after running for a few meters. Two Kiri-nins stood in front of them, a manic smile on each of their faces.

There was no warning, to sign that started the fight – the enemy-nin's just ran straight at them with weapons in hand.

Makoto, with a kunai in her hand, blocked the sword that had come down on her. She grunted from the impact and the strength that came from the attack as the dug her heels into the ground to stop her from sliding back even further.

They repeated this pattern for what felt like an eternity – he would swing his sword down and she would block it, preventing herself from getting cut down. Then, when she would find a small opening, escape from the attack.

"You annoying little _shit_ , just die!" her assailant growled moments later. He was easily a head and a half taller than her and much more experienced. At the same time, he underestimated her because of her smallness.

Makoto narrowed her eyes before suddenly spitting in the man's eyes. She knew it was dirty, that it was unfair – but she _didn't care_. She was in a life and death situation, and while she knew this was her first, it wouldn't be her last, and she knew that this moment would make her or break her. Even if she didn't want to, she _had_ to find a way out of this mess.

"Shit–" Momentarily blinded by her so-called attack, with her quick speed Makoto jumped up and roundhouse kicked him. Then, she proceeded to bring the kunai she had in her hand down in his leg. Internally grimacing at the squishing sound it made, she ignored the screech – _and the blood, oh shit it's in her mouth_ – and quickly uprooted the kunai. The man collapsed onto his side as she ran away, towards her teammate.

Masaki, seeing her, fell to the ground as she jumped on his back to kick the enemy's face. They had practiced this move so many times with Sakurai-sensei that it was almost like second nature to them now. She quickly jumped back and moved behind the enemy as Masaki engaged with the man once more.

But as much as they were in sync and giving the enemy hell, they were, sadly, just genin. They were not as skilled, not as powerful, and not as experienced as the man they were currently fighting; it was apparent that they were quickly becoming overwhelmed by the enemy-nin. There was a grunt of pain from next to her and when she quickly looked at Masaki, she saw blood _everywhere_.

"That's what happens when kids like you play ninja," the Kiri-nin said with a grin, quickly jumping away. Makoto and Masaki stood side by side and worried for her teammate, Makoto quickly assessed his wound. It was quite deep and blood was dripping down onto the ground. However, her attention went back to the Kiri-nin as he did something unbelievably gross – he licked the blood off of the kunai with a crazed grin.

"Oh my god." Her mouth hung open as she took in a breath of disgust at the sight. Fear shot through her as the man brought out another kunai.

Then suddenly, he shot forward towards the two and began attacking them with a speed that rivaled Sakurai-sensei.

Makoto, barely able to keep up with the strikes, cried out as the man nicked her arms and hands as she continued to have them raised to protect herself. Despite knowing that it could get her killed, she couldn't help but watch from the corner of her eye as Masaki struggled alongside her.

 _Fuck fuck fuck,_ she internally cursed.

The Konoha-nin they had taken refuge with from earlier that day were fighting various levels of kiri-nin around them as their outpost was being attacked. Sakurai-sensei had yet to return from his fight – _because he would come back, he promised_ – with their remaining teammate.

"Argh!" Masaki was the first to fall and the enemy, seeing an opportunity, pushed her away and–

Landing on her back, she groggily watched in slow motion as he kicked Masaki down onto the ground –

He jumped on him –

The weapon was in the air –

" _NO!_ "

Eyes widening, she scrambled to get up despite the pain in the back of her head, but she didn't let it stop her. She ran as fast as she could – _faster than she's ever run in her life_ – and jumped onto the man –

She brought her kunai down –

"Argh!"

 _It was softer than she imagined the kunai went straight into his neck as she severed his spinal cord –_

Blood splattered into her mouth –

 _Wait there was so much blood too much blood –_

She fell back on her back as the man toppled over, his eyes wide and _empty they were so empty where was the life –_

"Makoto?"

 _She just killed him oh no what did she do he was dead –_

"Makoto!"

"Why is he looking _at me?!_ " she cried and pushed herself back until she hit something – _anything_ – against her back and _she just killed someone._ "Make him _stop!_ "

Hands suddenly grabbed her face and pulled her away _and don't touch her don't –_

"Makoto, look at me," a voice said hands were holding her hands now but _don't touch –_

"N-No no _no –_ "

"Look at me!" With a shaky breath, she slowly opened her eyes and saw brown eyes looking down at her – _they were so familiar why were they so familiar?_ "It's Masaki, your teammate, remember?"

Her eyes were looking around wildly as she tried remembering – _teammate, teammate who?_

"Team Eight, Makoto, _Team Eight_."

Gulping, she looked at the face that stared at her _– so much emotion there was so much –_ and like a fog clearing, her memories of the following day, the following week, the following year, came back.

Her body wouldn't stop shaking but she was somewhat able to calm herself down to the best of her ability, pushing the thought of that dead man to the farthest, deepest, parts of her brain. The two remained in the same position for a few more minutes until she finally pulled away at the realization that his hands were still on her face. His eyes still betrayed his worried as he watched her but she nodded her head to reassure her fellow teammate. "I'm...sorry," she mumbled, refusing to look at him, "I...uh…"

"It's fine." Masaki stood up and offered Makoto a hand – one she gladly took as he pulled her up. "The fight ended a few minutes ago, let's go see the damage." The moment he loosened his grip on her hand to let go, her grip tightened as she now held onto his entire arm, hiding behind him. He pressed his lips but nodded his head as he began walking with her in tow, but he was sure to stay clear of the man that Makoto had killed.

And so the two left in the opposite direction, the man's glassy eyes open and never wavering, forever watching the back of the two Konoha genin that killed him.

* * *

 **Rendezvous with Death**

* * *

Makoto and Masaki sat next to each other in the corner of the room as several Konoha shinobi shuffled around, reorganizing the mess and sending birds about what had just occurred. No one paid the two any attention, despite one of them being covered in blood.

"Masaki...you should get that looked at," Makoto muttered as she looked at her teammate's wound.

He pulled his hand away before saying, "It's fine, I'll have someone look at it once everything's calmed down." She opened her mouth as if to argue, but he stopped her by holding a hand up and asking, "Where do you think Sakurai-sensei is?"

She pushed his hand away before turning back to look at the shinobi around them. "...I don't know."

"Do you –"

"Hey, identify yourself!"

The two froze as they heard a reply, "Sakurai Tsuyoshi, shinobi number –"

Before he could finish, Makoto and Masaki shot up and evaded the hands that tried to block them as they ran towards their sensei.

"Sensei!"

"Shou!"

Shou and Akamaru trailing behind him, Makoto launched herself into Sakurai's arms as she began sobbing while Masaki rushed to where their last remaining teammate stood.

Sakurai, while making sure not to agitate his injury, placed a hand on the back of Makoto's head as he returned her hug, pushing the sight of his blood-soaked student to the back of his mind for later. He felt her grip on him tightened and when he saw the highest ranked Jounin walk towards him, he quizzically looked at his other student.

"There was a...fight," Masaki mumbled, his hand gripping Kaimaru's fur.

"Identify yourself, shinobi."

After going through the standard check, Sakurai handed the man his dog tags that would inform him through a chakra signature that he was who he was.

As Jounin inspected the chains, Sakurai pulled Makoto away from him. He kneeled to get a better look at the blonde and saw the several cuts and bruises on her arms. "Makoto, look at me." Slowly, but surely, her blue eyes met with his and he saw how bloodshot they were, but that wasn't what made him sigh.

It was the emptiness that they held.

"...Yes, Sensei?"

Coughing, he placed a hand on her shoulder. Although not knowing what had happened, he could incur what did – she had her first kill, judging by how traumatized she was. "Not here, okay?" he quietly said, knowing that breaking down in front of everyone, despite how tempting it was, only gave way for others to criticize someone.

Gulping, Makoto nodded her head and quickly rushed to where Shou and Kaimaru stood. Sakurai watched her as she nearly toppled Shou over with the bone-crushing hug she gave the boy, the relief in all of them slightly uplifting the somber mood.

"Well, Sakurai-san, welcome back."

Team Eight was relatively safe – for now.

* * *

 **Rendezvous with Death – End**

* * *

 **A/N** : _Heyyo! Been a while – I know, but after my computer broke and all the shit with College Applications, I've come back with a new chapter! I had it written out mostly before my laptop went to shit, so thankfully, I just needed to make some edits and bam, a chapter done._

 _Yes, its short and I'm sorry, but I can't type for SHIT on a phone, and while I think editing and reviewing are great for the small screen, typing a whole entire story is just not a good idea for me._

 _Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this relatively short chapter :)_

 _Until next time, don't forget to follow/fav., and please_ _ **review**_ _if you haven't already!_


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